Paris Paralympics: Yogesh Kathuniya bags silver in men's discus throw F56

Paris, Sep 2
India's Yogesh Kathuniya won the silver medal in the Men's Discus Throw - F56 event at the Paris Paralympics, here on Monday.

Kathuniya, who won the silver medal in the F56 category at the World Para-Athletics Championships in May, recorded the season's best throw of 42.22m to take the silver behind Brazil's Claudiney Batista dos Santos, who clinched gold a Paralympic record throw of 46.86m.

Konstantinos Tzounis of Greece took the bronze with a best throw of 41.32m.

Kathuniya marked his silver winning throw in his very first attempt and followed it up with throws of 41.50m, 41.55m, 40.33m, 40.89m and 39.68m respectively.

Interestingly, the 27-year-old Indian had won the silver in Tokyo 2020 with a best effort of 44.38m while also finishing behind Santos back then. At the Paris 2023 Para Athletics World Championships, he again took silver behind the Brazilian to add a world medal to his Paralympic success.

Kathuniya, who developed a rare neurological condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome when he was 9, took up Para sports in 2017 during his college days. While he tried several disciplines, he fell in love with the discus throw.

Kathuniya's silver is India's eighth medal at the Para Games in Paris and fourth in athletics. Earlier, Nishad won silver in the men's high jump T47 and Preethi Pal won bronze medals in the 100m and 200m T35 class events.

The other four medals for India were won in para shooting. Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal won gold and bronze, respectively, in the 10m air rifle shooting standing in SH1 class. Manish Narwal (men's 10m air pistol SH1) and Rubina Francis (women's 10m air pistol SH1) won silver and bronze, respectively.