NEW DELHI: India's two-time Paralympic medallist Yogesh Kathuniya secured the silver medal in the men’s discus throw F56 event at the World Para Athletics Championships 2025 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Monday.
The 28-year-old, who bagged the silver in the 2020 and 2025 Paralympics, registered the best effort of 42.49m, which came in his second attempt, to finish behind 2012 and 2016 Paralympic medalist Claudiney Batista, whose best effort of 45.67m won him a gold medal. Meanwhile, Greece’s Konstantinos Tzounis finished third with a throw of 39.97m.
This is Yogesh’s third successive silver medal in the world championships, after already winning it in the 2023 and 2024 editions in France and Japan, respectively.
Interestingly, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, Kathuniya captured the silver medal behind Brazil’s Batista. At the 2023 Para Athletics World Championships in Paris, he again took silver, behind the Brazilian, to add a world medal to his Paralympic success.
Kathuniya, who developed a rare neurological condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome when he was nine years old, took up Para sports in 2017 when he was at college.
This is India’s sixth medal in the competition so far - two gold, three silver and one bronze.
On Monday, Rinku Hooda and Sundar Singh Gurjar won the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the men’s javelin throw F46 class.
En route to his gold medal, Rinku, 26, broke the World Para Athletics Championships record with his opening-round throw of 63.81m. The previous championship record of 61.89m was set by China’s Guo Chunliang in 2015.