World Para Athletics Championships: Dharambir, Atul Bag Silver, Bronze As India Drop To 7th In Medal Tally

Reigning Paralympic champion Dharambir Nain and Atul Kaushik picked up a silver and a bronze for India in the men's club throw and discus throw respectively on the sixth day of World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi on Thursday.

Dharambir, who had won gold in 2024 Paris Paralympics and a bronze in the 2024 edition of the World Para Athletics Championships, produced a 29.71m effort to finish second in the men's Club Throw F51 event.

Aleksandar Radisic of Serbia took the gold with a throw of 30.36m, while Uladzislau Hryb, a Neutral Paralympic Athlete, won the bronze with 28.70m.

Other Indian in the fray, Pranav Soorma finished fifth with 28.19.

In the men's discus throw F57 event, Kaushik finished third with an effort 45.61m, behind Libya's Mahmoud Rajab (46.73m) and world record holder Thiago Paulino Dos santos (45.69m).

There was heartbreak for India’s 19-year-old Haney on his World Championships debut in the men’s discus throw F37 final. He was in medal contention from his opening throw onwards until Japan’s Yamato Shimbo vaulted from fourth place to silver in the final round and edged the Rohtak lad from the podium.

Haney was in the lead after the first round with a throw of 51.22m but was unable to improve on that in his subsequent visits to the throwing circle. Mexico’s Luis Carlos Lopez found a winning throw of 56.59m, a new championships record, on his second try, while Mykola Zhabnyak (Ukraine) went ahead in the fourth round with 52.70.

“I was sure of winning a bronze but in the last round of attempts, the Japanese went past me and I couldn’t do well either. I am very disappointed,” said Haney.

With no gold on the day, India dropped to seventh from earlier fourth in the medal table with 4 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze.

Brazil strengthened their top position with 12 gold, 17 silver and 7 bronze, followed by China (8-10-9) and Poland (7-2-5).

Earlier in the day, Saeid Afrooz of Iran in the men’s javelin throw F34 and Safia Djelal of Algeria in the women’s shot put F57 added a world record each.

Saeid Afrooz’s 41.52m improved on his own mark of 41.16 set in Kobe edition in 2024 while Safia Djelal’s 11.67m effort bettered her own mark of 11.62m set in 2024. The number of world records set here has risen to 21 while 65 new championships records have been established so far.