India sweep men's high jump T63; claim gold, silver, bronze at Asian Para Games

Photo credit/PCI

India swept all three medals in the men's high jump T63 final at the Asian Para Games 2026 on Thursday, with Shailesh Kumar winning gold ahead of Varun Bhati and Rahul Saroha at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Japan.Shailesh cleared 1.89m to set a new Asian Para Games record, breaking the previous mark of 1.80m set by India's Sharad Kumar at the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea.

Shailesh was in close competition with Varun until the bar was raised to 1.84m. He then cleared 1.87m and 1.89m to move ahead and secure the gold medal with a new Games record.Former Paralympic bronze medallist Varun took silver with a season's best jump of 1.84m, while Rahul won bronze after clearing 1.81m.With this result, India repeated its podium sweep from the 2022 edition in the men's high jump T42/T63 event, once again claiming all three medals.The T63 classification is for athletes with an above-knee amputation or limb deficiency, who compete using a lower-limb prosthesis with a knee joint for running and jumping. The Indian high jump trio usually competes in the T42 category, which covers lower-limb deficiency, leg-length difference, impaired muscle power or limited passive movement affecting hip and knee function.

The Philippines' Edwin Enguito, Myanmar's Zaw Min Tun and Pakistan's Muhammad Nadeem finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.This was India's third clean sweep at the Games. Devender Kumar had earlier led an Indian sweep in the men's discus throw F44/64 event, while Sachin Khilari spearheaded another in the men's shot put F46 final.