Mariyappan, Sharad brave rain, pain to clinch medals
Rain spoils Rio 2016 champ Mariyappan’s quest for gold; painful knee restricts Sharad in high jump event
MUMBAI: Just when the men’s high jump T63 final of the 2020 Paralympics kicked off under lights at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, it began to drizzle. As the bar kept rising, so did the downpour. Sharad Kumar, who injured his meniscus the day before the event, wasn’t sure if he would be fit enough to jump in the first place. Mariyappan Thangavelu, the defending champion with a leap of 1.89m at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, wasn’t sure if his target of 1.90m was quite as achievable anymore.
“Every jump felt like war,” Kumar said.
Against this far-from-ideal conditions that tested their mental resolve as well as physical skills, the Indians delivered two medals, a silver and bronze, from one eventful final on Tuesday. The two medals also pushed India’s overall tally into double figures at the Paralympics for the first time ever. After a record haul of five medals on Monday that swelled the tally to seven, Indians backed it up with three more on Tuesday with shooter Adhana Singhraj opening the honours with a bronze in men’s 10mair pistol SH1 (lower body impairment) before Mariyappan and Kumar took over.
The T63 classification is for athletes with a leg deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in the legs. The athletes compete in a standing position.
Kumar won bronze with a jump of 1.83m in his first attempt before failing to clear 1.86m. Mariyappan did clear 1.86m, in his third and final attempt, lifting his right arm and glancing towards the Indian contingent cheering on. The medal was in, but the fight for gold was still on.
Joining him in that battle was American Sam Grewe, who had finished behind Mariyappan in 2016 with a silver-winning 1.86m jump. After also having cleared 1.86m in his third attempt on Tuesday, both went for 1.88m. Mariyappan had already been there in Rio, Grewe hadn’t. In Tokyo, the tables turned. Mariyappan touched the bar in all his three tries, Grewe leapt over it with his final shot. Grewe, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that led to his leg being amputated, then tried to better his own world record, 1.90m, but could not clear the bar set at 1.91m.
Mariyappan couldn’t defend his title, but he backed up his 2016 gold with a silver medal in his second Paralympics.
The 26-year-old has not returned from the Paralympics without a medal to show in his young and already illustrious career, delivering on the biggest stage in sun-kissed Rio as well as rain-drenched Tokyo.
“I was confident of clearing 1.90m if the conditions were better. I had started well before the rain picked up,” Mariyappan said in a press conference, adding his socks started getting wet which hampered his take-off after the impressive start where he cleared four attempts including 1.83m without needing a second invitation.
Drama followed him in Tokyo. He was chosen as India’s flagbearer for the opening ceremony before being replaced at the last minute after being identified as a close contact of a Covid positive person on his flight. He was made to isolate and train separately. “It was an upsetting moment for me. But I somehow wanted to win a medal for India,” he said.
Mariyappan was five when, while on his way to school, he was run over by a vehicle in his village in Salem, Tamil Nadu. It crushed his right leg. Despite his mother being the sole earner of the family after his father had abandoned them, Mariyappan wanted to complete his schooling. It was there that his PE teacher insisted he try high jump. The teacher’s hunch proved to be right as Mariyappan finished second in his first competition that also had ablebodied kids. With national coach Satyanarayana spotting him in 2013 and taking him under his wings at SAI Bengaluru from 2015, the Rajinikanth fan’s stellar run on the international stage took off: gold in 2016 Paralympics, bronze in 2018 Asian Para Games, bronze in 2019 Worlds.
At the same World Championships in Dubai, Kumar had won silver.
It came a year after the gold at the 2018 Asiad, but a spot at the podium had eluded him in Rio, where he was sixth. Shifting his training base to Ukraine under foreign coach Nikitin Yevhen thereafter, Kumar reset his goal: a medal in Tokyo. Things seemed well on track until Monday, when Kumar had a tear in his meniscus after landing on his knee during a training session.
“I was in a lot of pain,” Kumar said over the phone. “I had to manage the pain, and the rain. It was one crazy ride. I cried the whole of last night. I had lost all hope of competing. But I I just said to myself, ‘whatever has to happen in life will happen. I have no control over it’. And that’s how I entered the track today.”