High jumper Sharad Kumar credit Gita for bronze medal at Paralympics

Bronze medalist Sharad Kumar was deflated and dejected an evening earlier than competing on the Paralympics T42 excessive bounce owing to an acute drawback in his knee. He was even considering pulling out his title from the competitors however a telephone name to his household and studying Bhagwad Gita helped him allay his apprehensions and take part within the occasion.
Kumar had suffered meniscus dislocation, a sort of knee harm, on Monday and cried all night time over the anxiousness of not having the ability to take part within the competitors. But he in the end took half within the occasion and jumped 1.83 metres to win a bronze medal for the nation.
Just as at Rio 2016, #IND have 2️⃣ athletes within the podium locations in Men’s High Jump T63 Final! 🔥🔥Mariyappan Thangavelu and Sharad Kumar have received #silver and #bronze medals respectively, taking 🇮🇳’s medal tally into double figures! 😍#Tokyo2020 #Paralympics #ParaAthletics pic.twitter.com/HSadcK8Nnt— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) August 31, 2021
“I felt accomplished to have won a bronze for the country because I had suffered an injury on my leg during training on Monday. My meniscus was dislocated last night. I the cried whole night and thought of pulling out of the event,” Kumar stated after the occasion.
After coming third within the competitors, Kumar reminisced how speaking along with his household an evening earlier than the occasion and studying Bhagavad Gita instilled the misplaced confidence in him to offer his finest within the subsequent day’s occasion.
“I spoke to my family and my father told me to read Bhagavad Gita and focus on the variables that are under my control and forget about those over which I can have no control,” stated the 29-year-old athlete from Patna, who suffered paralysis of his left leg after being administered a spurious polio drug throughout a neighborhood eradication marketing campaign on the age of two.
“So I forgot about my injury and considered each jump as a war. The medal is the icing on the cake,” Kumar stated.
Kumar, a double Asian Para Games (2014 and 2018) excessive bounce champion and world silver medallist (2019), stated it was a tough scenario for him through the occasion as he needed to give his finest in addition to bear in his thoughts that his bounce doesn’t have an opposed impression on his already injured knee.
“I was two tasks at the same time—jumping as well as trying to keep my knee secure. And that amidst a ferocious downpour,” Kumar remembered.
When requested how laborious it’s to compete within the rain, Kumar stated, “Competing in the high jump in rainy conditions is incredibly difficult for us. We have one leg to balance ourselves and we wear spikes on the other leg. I tried to speak to the officials, persuading them to call off the event. But the Americans had spikes for both the legs, this did not help us in our argument and the competition continued as per schedule.”