India opened its medal account at the Rio Paralympics with Mariyappan Thangavelu winning the gold and Varun Singh Bhati the bronze in the men's T42 high jump. The T42 category includes athletes who have had above-the-knee amputations in a single leg or a disability that is comparable.
Thangavelu jumped 1.89m and Bhati, 1.86m. Sam Grewe of the US won the silver.
India's Sharad Kumar led at one stage after clearing 1.55m and 1.60m. But his best jump was only 1.77m, leaving him in sixth position.
Thangavelu jumped 1.77m in his tenth attempt, along with three others -- Poland's Lukasz Mamczarz, China's Zhiqiang Zhing and Kumar.
In the later stages, with the contest reduced to three competitors, Bhati set the tone with a jump of 1.83m along with Thagavelu. After Grewe cleared 1.86m to grab the top spot, the Indians equalled the height. Thangavelu eventually grabbed the top honours by finishing with a jump of 1.89m.
Thangavelu, 21, thus became the third Indian ever to win a Paralympics gold -- after Murlikant Petkar (50m freestyle 3, 1972) and Devendra Jhajharia (javelin, 2004).
Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra was among the first to congratulate Thangavelu and Bhati.
Mariyappan joins the gold medal club, welcome! Kudos 2 @GoSportsVoices for aiding Varun Bhati who won bronze! Champs pic.twitter.com/dQhlnGP45n
- Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) 10 September 2016
Thangavelu had qualified for the Paralympics after attaining the 'A' qualification mark at the IPC Grand Prix in Tunisia this year. His right leg had had to amputated after being crushed by a bus while he was on his way to school. Thangavelu was five years old at the time.
Bhati, who is from Greater Noida and trains at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bangalore, has polio in one leg. He had won the gold at the 2014 China Open Athletics Championship, and finished fifth at the 2014 Para Asian Games in Incheon (South Korea) and 2015 Para World Championships in Doha (Qatar). He had also achieved the 'A' qualification mark for the 2012 London Paralympics.
In other events at the Rio Paralympics, Sandeep and Narender Ranbir finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in F-42 javelin throw competition with personal best throws of 54.30m and 53.79m.
Suyash Jadhav failed to advance to the final of the men's 50m freestyle in the S7 category after finishing fifth in his heat with a timing of 31.58s.