India’s Amit Kumar missed bronze medal by the smallest of margin in men’s club throw – F51 event on Friday, finishing fourth after remaining in the top three positions for nearly the entire competition. Saroha had also participated in the London Olympics, where he had finished 8th in the discus throw. Another Serbian, Milos Mitric, clinched the silver medal with a 26.84 m throw. Slovakia’s Marian Kureja won bronze with a throw of 26.82m. Mariyappan Thangavelu (men’s T42 high jump) and Devendra Jhajharia (men’s F46 javelin throw) had won gold medals in their respective events while Deepa Malik (women’s F53 shot put) and Varun Singh Bhati (men’s T42 high jump) had bagged a silver and bronze respectively.
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Another Indian in the fray, Dharambir finished ninth and last in the finals with a throw of 21.39m.
Amit Kumar Saroha had earlier won gold in men’s gold medal at 2014 Asian Para Games.
The F51 category is disability sport classification for the ones who are quadriplegic – suffering from paralysis caused by illness or injury. They had also won four medals at the 1984 games in NY.
The 31-year-old Amit was a national level hockey player until a tragedy struck him at the age of 22. In 2012, Saroha won a gold medal in the Olympic qualifier event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, breaking the Asian record. In 2013, Saroha was conferred the Arjuna Award.
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Saroha had entered the event with high hopes after winning a silver medal at the World Championships in 2015.
