World Para Athletics Championship: Golden high for Shailesh!

Nine years ago Shailesh Kumar wasnrsquot even aware there is something called paraathlete On Saturday he became the world para champion in menrsquos high jump T630Bronze for Varun BhatiCompeting at the World Para Athletics Championship here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Shailesh created a new championship record by clearing the bar set at 191m The Indian left the Paris Paralympics champion Ezra Frech of the USA and compatriot Varun Singh Bhati behind Both Frech and Bhati registered a best clearance of 185m but the American finished ahead on countback and the veteran Indian jumper had to be satisfied with bronzeVarun BhatiThe other Indian in the final Rahul finished fourth with his personal best of 178m Coming from Islamnagar a village in the Jamui district of Bihar Shailesh used to compete with the ablebodied athletes during his subjunior days and even won gold in the 2016 SubJunior State Championships in BiharldquoI picked up the sport while in school competing with the ablebodied players My friend introduced me to para sports So I thought letrsquos try and see where I can reach The other paraathletes told me about different categories Thatrsquos how my para journey startedrdquo he saidOn Saturday he wasnrsquot satisfied with 191m and went for 194m but failed to clear it on all three attempts But 191m was enough to overcome the disappointment of a fourthplace finish in the Paris Paralympics last year Speaking like a true Indian Shailesh who also won the Junior Para World Championships gold in 2019 said getting Indian food to eat helps him train and perform betterlsquoEating Indian food helpsrsquoldquoEating Indian food during a home event helps me a lot because when we compete or train abroad itrsquos difficult to get good Indian foodrdquo he said ldquoWe were training in Bengaluru where it was a lot cooler We came here 10 days before the event to get acclimatized It helpedrdquo Shailesh has been training at the Sports Authority of India centre in Gandhi Nagar since 2019 where he landed up lured by a stipendDeepthi JeevanjildquoI got selected under the Khelo India scheme after winning gold at the Junior World Championships I was offered Rs 10000 monthly along with food and lodging so I thought itrsquos good and I must gordquo Shailesh added Bhati meanwhile was happy to be back among the medals on the international stage ldquoMy last international medal was the silver I won at the 2018 Para Asian Games So I am really happy to be back on the international podium To be very honest I havenrsquot slept for years But I think today I will sleep peacefullyrdquoThe last event of the opening day of the competition saw the womenrsquos 400m T20 reigning world champion Deepthi Jeevanji failing to defend her title finishing with a silver medal She lost to Turkiyersquos Aysel Onder who bettered her own world record to win goldDeepthi was leading the final until the 300m but Onder added pace to her sprint in the home straight to leave the Indian behind with a new world record timing of 5451 seconds Deepthi clocked 5516 seconds which is her season best Ukrainersquos Yuliia Shuliar won the bronze medal 5629sec Among the other Indians in the finals Kanchan Lakhani finished fifth in the womenrsquos discus throw F53 with a best of 968m In the menrsquos shotput F37 Indiarsquos Manu finished ninth with a mark of 1343m