'Was on verge of pulling out, reading Bhagavad Gita helped': Sharad Kumar credits Hindu holy book for his bronze medal at Paralympics
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Tokyo, Sept 2: Paralympian bronze medallist Sharad Kumar was depressed the night before participating at the Paralympics T42 high jump due to a knee problem. He had even thoughts coming in to pull out from the world's biggest sporting event due to a knee problem. But a phone call to his family and reading Bhagwad Gita helped in winning the bronze medal and scripting history.
The 29-year-old Patna-born athlete, who jumped to 1.83m to win the bronze, suffered meniscus dislocation (a type of knee injury) on Monday. He wept all night over the anxiety of not being able to participate in the competition. But guess what, he took part in the event and jumped 1.83 meters to win a bronze medal for the country.
"I felt accomplished to have won a bronze for the country because I had suffered an injury on my leg during training on Monday. My meniscus was dislocated last night. I the cried whole night and thought of pulling out of the event," Kumar said after the event.
After finishing third and ending up in standing up at the podium, Kumar recalled how talking with his family a night before the event and reading Bhagavad Gita instilled the lost confidence in him to give his best in the next day’s event.
"I spoke to my family and my father told me to read Bhagavad Gita and focus on the variables that are under my control and forget about those over which I can have no control,” said the 29-year-old athlete from Patna, who suffered paralysis of his left leg after being administered a spurious polio drug during a local eradication campaign at the age of two. So I forgot about my injury and considered each jump as a war. The medal is the icing on the cake," Kumar said.
Kumar, a double Asian Para Games (2014 and 2018) high jump champion and world silver medallist (2019), said it was a tough situation for him during the event as he was jumping as well as trying to protect his knee. "I was doing two tasks, jumping as well as trying not to destabilise my knee. And that too amid pouring rain."
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"We have one leg to balance ourselves and we wear spikes on the other (leg). I tried to speak to the officials saying that we might have to call it off. But the American guys had spikes for both the legs, that did not add to our support and the competition went on," he recalled.