World Para Athletics Championship 2017: Sharad Kumar wins silver, Varun Bhati clinches bronze in high jump

India's Sharad Kumar and Varun Bharti won silver and bronze medals in the high jump for India respectively at the World Para Athletics Championships on Saturday.

In the men's T42 event, Sharad a personal best height of 1.84m to win the silver while Bhati leaped 1.77m to earn a bronze medal. The gold medal was won by United States' Sam Grewe, who leaped a height 1.86m. The two helped India to increased the medal tally to five in the competition ending on Sunday.

Sundar Singh Gurjar gave India their first medal on Day 1 of the Championships in London by winning gold in the javelin competition.

In the absence of Paralympic gold medallist Devendra Jhajharia, Sundar, who had been disqualified from his event in Rio 2016 due to technical reasons, set the record straight and took home the gold medal with a personal best throw of 60.36 meters.

India's Sharad had also won a silver medal during the Fazaa International IPC International Athletics Grand Prix earlier in March this year. He even won a gold medal in the men's high jump at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon where he broke a 12-year Asian Games record by clearing a height of 1.80m in his F-42 category en route to reclaiming his World No. 1 position.

Bhati on the other hand, clinched bronze at the Rio Paralympics last year. In the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, (Korea), Bhati was also part of the Indian team where he managed to come fifth. Interestingly, in the same year, he won a gold medal at the 2014 China Open Athletics Championship.