As a younger child rising up in village Badaun close to Amb in Himachal Pradesh, Nishad Kumar would usually dream of becoming a member of the Indian Military. He would assist his farmer father Rashpal Singh on the household’s half-acre farmland earlier than the then eight-year-old misplaced a hand in a fodder-cutting machine in 2007.
On Sunday night time, the 24-year-old Indian para-athlete received the silver medal in males’s excessive soar T47 remaining at Stade de France with a greatest soar of two.04m, three years after his silver medal in Tokyo. USA’s Roderick Townsend clinched the gold medal.
Mother and father Rashpal and Pushpa Devi had been watching the historic feat. “Like every village child, Nishad appreciated flying kits in addition to assembly Military troopers on trip whereas going to high school. His first dream was to hitch the Indian Military. When the accident occurred, he was not worrying concerning the ache however asking the docs whether or not he might be a part of the Military. The docs didn’t need to disappoint him. His two medals in Paralympics are testomony to his willpower that he can serve India by profitable medals and seeing the Tricolour fly excessive,” Rashpal advised The Indian Categorical.
Nishad Kumar’s dad and mom Rashpal Singh and Pushpa Devi with sister Rama Devi at their residence in Badaun in Himachal Pradesh. (Categorical Picture by Kamleshwar Singh)
With the village nearly within the wild and close to a seasonal rivulet close to the state freeway and most villagers rising maize and wheat, Kumar would watch his father do masonry. On that fateful day in August 2007, Kumar was serving to his mom when his proper hand bought caught within the machine and the hand was lower to items.
However the boy, who was taller than children of his age, would rejoin college inside three months and it was on the Saraswati Vidya Mandir College on the close by village of Katohur Khurd that Kumar was put into athletics by coach Ramesh in 2009.
“He would get pleasure from taking part in 100m and 200m aside from excessive soar and would come residence on his bicycle late at night time put up his coaching on the college. In the course of the college meets, he at all times advised the coach that he would compete with able-bodied children as he felt himself to be their equal,” says elder sister Rama Kumari.
It was a silver medal in excessive soar on the sub-junior College Nationwide Video games at Patiala that gave Kumar his first style of nationwide achievement. In 2017, he shifted base to Panchkula to coach underneath coach Naseem Ahmad, who as soon as coached future Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, and Vikram Chaudhary.
Nishad Kumar’s dad and mom Rashpal Singh and Pushpa Devi with sister Rama Devi at their residence in Badaun in Himachal Pradesh. (Categorical Picture by Kamleshwar Singh)
“Nishad’s largest energy was his perception that he might compete within the normal class from a younger age and it helped him turn out to be a assured athlete. Our foremost problem was to make him grasp the Fosbury Flop method, the place the jumper lands on the abdomen. He grew up leaping within the scissors kick type which helped him enhance his core energy and knee drive at a younger age” says coach Chaudhary.
Kumar improved his private greatest from 1.83m in 2017 to 2.0m on the World Para Championship in Dubai in 2019. In Tokyo, Kumar had a greatest soar of two.06m and adopted that with reaching his career-best mark of two.14m on the Nationals Video games, competing within the regular class and ending fifth in 2022.
Final 12 months, he received the silver medal with a greatest soar of two.09m on the world para championships and set an Asian Para document with the identical mark on the Hangzhou Asian Video games to win the gold.
“He had educated for greater than 4 months underneath coach Jeremy Fischer, coach of Olympic medallist Will Claye within the USA, previous to the Paris Video games and final 12 months too. To coach with a few of the world’s greatest at Chula Vista helped him loads,” says coach Ahmad.
Sister Rama Devi, a 12 months elder to Kumar, has arrange the Asian Video games gold medal and Tokyo Paralympics silver medal for show at their residence and whereas she reveals the photographs to the village women, she has one remorse.
“Whereas the Himachal Pradesh authorities gave him the money award for the Tokyo Paralympics, Nishad remains to be and not using a job. His money award for the Asian Para Video games too has not been given but by the state authorities,” says Devi.