Indian HN Girisha wins silver medal at Paralympics for high jump

Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda's silver medal in the F42 classification of high jump helped India secure a place in the London 2012 Paralympic Games medal table. India now has a rank of 60 in the medal tally table.

At the Men’s High Jump final event held on September 03, 2012 at 7.50pm BST, Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda -- HN Girisha -- as he is commonly known as -- scored his personal best high jump record of 1.74 metres narrowly losing the gold medal.

Fiji’s Iliesa Delana took home the gold medal for the event with a score of 1.77 metres and Poland’s Lukasz Mamczarz won the bronze medal.

Mamczarz had the same score as HN Girisha -- 1.74 metres but was awarded bronze as he took more attempts than the Indian athlete. 

Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda is a 24-year old athlete from Karnataka, South India and Shri Satyanarayana is his coach.

Ajay Maken, sports minister announced that the silver medalist will be awarded 30-lakh cash prize. In addition, he will be awarded 10-lakh rupees by the Indian Paralympics Committee and 5-lakh rupees cash prize by the Karnataka State Sports Authority. 

HN Girisha gave India its first Paralympics medal in the high jump category. It is also India's first Paralympics medal after eight years. While India won one gold and one bronze at the Athens 2004, it did not win any medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The good news about India's silver medal comes just amid complaints that the Indian athletes do not have enough number of escorts. 

India News Bulletin was the first Indian news site to report the news about HN Girisha's win. More updates and more about HN Girisha's profile to follow soon