World Para Athletics C'ships: Shailesh Kumar topples Paralympic Champion to clinch high jump gold

New Delhi: The high jumper Shailesh Kumar clinched India's first gold medal at the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships here at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium on Saturday.

The Asian Para Games Champion got the better of Paralympic Champion Ezra French of the USA to win the men's high jump T42/63 world title in front of a home crowd.

This was Shailesh's second World Championships medal, following a silver in 2023, where he finished second behind the same opponent, Ezra. 

He not only avenged his 2023 defeat against Ezra but also recorded a new championship record of 1.91m in the T42 discipline.

He bettered the previous record of his fellow countryman, Sharad Kumar, who recorded the championship record of 1.83m in 2019.

Another Indian high jumper, Varun Bhati, also clinched the bronze medal in the same category, completing a double podium for India.

This was India's second consecutive world title in this category after Mariyappan Thangavelu's gold medal in the last edition.

Silver for Defending Champion Deepthi Jeevanji 

In the women's 400 T20 category, Deepthi Jeevanji clinched the silver medal with a season-best time of 55.16s.

She was leading the race after the first 300m, but then Turkish runner Aysel Onder toppled her with a late dash and won the gold medal with a new World Record timing of 54.51s.

With the three medals on the opening day, India is now in the 4th position in the overall medal tally of the championship.