Tokyo: Indian discus thrower Vinod Kumar on Monday lost his F52 category bronze medal at the Paralympics after being found ineligible in disability classification assessment by the competition panel.
“…the panel was unable to allocate the athlete Vinod Kumar from NPC India with a sports class and the athlete was designated as Classification not Completed (CNC),” the organizers said in a statement.
“The athlete is therefore ineligible for the Men’s F52 Discus medal event and his results in that competition are void,” it added.
He broke the Asian record with a throw of 19.91 meters. Piotr Kosewicz of Poland took first place with the best attempt of 20.02m. Velimir Sandor, a Croatian athlete, won silver with the best performance of 19.98 meters.
The 41-year-old BSF soldier, whose father fought in the Indo-Pak war of 1971, finished third after Poland’s Piotr Kosewicz (20.02m) and Croatia’s Velimir Sandor (19.98m).
However, his medal had been put on hold by the tournament organizers as a result of a dispute regarding his disability classification last day.
Although, the organizers had classified Vinod in F52 on August 22, which is for athletes with decreased muscle power, restricted range of motion, limb deficiency, or leg length difference. It was unclear why the categorization had been called into question.
After joining the BSF, Kumar injured his legs while training and fell down a cliff in Leh, leaving him bedridden for nearly a decade, during which he lost both of his parents.
