Yogesh Kathuniya gets discus bronze, India gets 2 more Tokyo slots

Dubai: Three foul attempts, but promising Indian thrower Yogesh Kathuniya didn't give up hope to claim the bronze medal in men's discus throw F56 final at the Dubai 2019 World Para Athletics Championships here on Tuesday.

In doing so, Kathuniya also booked the seventh Tokyo 2020 qualification spot for India in Para-Athletics, before Praveen Kumar joined him with a fourth-place finish in the men's high jump T64 final last evening. He attained a personal best clearing the bar at 1.92 meters.

Under International Paralympic Committee rules, the top four ranked athletes at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in each of the individual medal events on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Programme (excluding marathon) will each obtain one qualification slot for their respective country.

The 23-year-old Kathuniya hurled the discus to a distance of 42.51 meters in his sixth attempt to take the bronze. For the most part of the game, he stayed in the second place behind eventual winner Brazilian Claudiney Batista dos Santos (45.92m) but Iran's Ali Mohammadyari was lucky to manage just one right attempt in his last - a 43.51 meters - to take the silver.

In fact, there was a protest from the Iranian after he was disqualified by the jury.

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