Paris Paralympics 2024: India’s Yogesh Kathuniya wins second successive silver in discus throw event

Indian discus thrower Yogesh Kathuniya on 2 September won the second successive silver medal at the Paris Paralympics 2024. This was his season's best effort of 42.22m in F56 category.

Kathuniya, who won a silver in the Tokyo Paralympics, his very first attempt hurled a discus to 42.22m. While, Brazil's Claudiney Batista dos Santos registered a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals, and created a new Games record with an effort of 46.86m in his fifth attempt.

Greece's Konstantinos Tzounis won the bronze with 41.32m.

According to details, the F-56 is a seating field event class for differently-abled athletes, where, people with amputations and spinal cord injuries take part in this classification, added PTI.

With this silver medal, India's tally at the Paris Paralympics now stands at 8, including one gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

About Yogesh Kathuniya:

Born to Meena Devi and her husband Gyanchand Kathuniya, a soldier with the Indian Army, Kathuniya developed Guillain–Barré syndrome at the age of 9 years.

He attended Indian Army Public School in Chandigarh, as his father served in the army at Chandimandir Cantonment.

As his mother learnt physiotherapy, he regained muscle strength to walk again at the age of 12 years. Later, he attended Kirori Mal College in Delhi and earned a Bachelor's degree in Commerce. Following this, he joined para games.

According to details, Kathuniya set a world record in F36 category by throwing the disc to 45.18 m at the 2018 World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin.

He represented India at the Tokyo Paralympics and won a silver medal in the men's discus throw F56 event. He was also awarded the Arjuna Award for Para-Atheletics after his silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

And on 2 September, he secured a silver medal at the Paris Paralympics 2024 in the F-56 event.

With media inputs.