Yogesh Kathuniya won the men’s discus throw F56 event in Paralympics in Paris on 2nd September. His performance contributed to adding more medals to India’s tallies, resulting in a total of eight medals in the Games being held in Paris, France.
Kathuniya, who had participated and came out very successful in the Tokyo Paralympics, where she clinched a silver medal, was able to perform a throw of 42.22 meters this season, thus scoring his personal best. In the field of other strong players, he stayed rather calm and reliable during the final of the championship. The best he could achieve was 42.22 meters, which crowned him second in the ranking of the competition.
The overall winner of the event, who was also awarded the gold medal, was Brazil’s Batista dos Santos Claudiney who threw it to 46.86 meters. For Claudiney’s throw, he broke the Paralympic Record in that event, which was better than his own previous record of 45.59 meters, which he displayed in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Claudiney also holds the world record in the F56 category achieved in Berlin with the throw of 47.37 meters this had earlier been attained in early 2023. This was evident from his performance; he was very consistent and strong potentially showing dominance from the onset of the competition as he left the other competitors with a lot to chew.
The third place was awarded to Greece’s Konstantinos Tzounis with a record 41.32 meters. Kathuniya, fourth in the order of athletes, delivered a solid series of throws: 43.22m, 41.50m, 41.55m, 40.33m, 40.89m, and 39.68m. Although he failed to achieve anything better than the first throw in the subsequent tries, this was good enough to keep him in second place all through the event.
This little tale of Kathuniya is that he left no stone unturned to achieve his goal and another proud moment for India at the Paralympics. Silver also extended India’s successful record in Paralympic events and shores up the country’s position on the world stage in the field of Paralympic sports.
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