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Journalism of Courage
The men’s high jump T47 final at the World Para Athletics Championships on Friday turned into another battle between India’s Nishad Kumar and American Roderick Townsend, and it was the turn of the competitor from the host country to prevail over one of the legends in his field.
Nishad, a two-time Paralympic silver medallist, got the better of Townsend for the first time with an effort of 2.14 metres, even though he couldn’t break the latter’s world record of 2.16m in his three attempts at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
But such is the camaraderie and mutual respect between the two that Nishad would get a thumbs up from the five-time world champion and multiple Paralympic winner. The two first competed against each other at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and the Himachal Pradesh high jumper has had a lot to imbibe from his long-time rival.
“If there is one thing I have learned from Roderick during all our meetings is to never give up while chasing a mark. I couldn’t break the world record today but that was always my target. I could have gone for 2.16 to equal the world record but me and my coach believed I could have broken it. I always wanted to win gold with Roderick in competition,” Nishad told The Indian Express.
For Townsend, who won the high jump and long jump gold at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, and followed that with the high jump titles in Tokyo as well as the Paris Paralympics, along with the long jump silver in Tokyo, lost his world title for the first time since clinching the first of his five in high jump in 2015.
The American, who had a best jump of 2.03m on Friday, finished third behind Nishad and Abudullah Ilgaz of Turkey, who had a best of 2.08m.
“Nishad has always kept me to the edge. Nishad would wish that I had a better day as he wanted to beat me on my best day, which was not the case today. We met each other during competitions in the USA and I’m excited for him to win the world title in front of his home crowd. I think he is capable of bettering my world mark,” Townsend told The Indian Express.
At Tokyo, Nishad, who lost his right arm when he was eight in an accident with a fodder-cutting machine, won the silver with a best jump of 2.06m. A year later, he would go to the USA to train for the first time and meet Jeremy Fischer, coach of 19 Olympic and world Championships medallist jumpers including Will Clay.
Nishad, who was on a 90-day entry visa, spent a major part of the stint rectifying his training regime.
“Prior to the US visit, my target used to be to train as hard as my body could. Jeremy would first go a bit easy and work on my strength as well as increase my run-up by two metres. At first, I told him that it wouldn’t suit me. But he told me to trust his methods.”
Within a month of returning to India, Nishad would touch the 2.14m mark for the first time at the 2022 National Games, where he finished fifth. He would again spend months training in San Diego and this time, Fischer would also work on getting him to think like an able-bodied athlete.
“If you see now, Nishad has one of the smoothest approaches in high jump, be it para or able-bodied competitions. But at first, we had to work on his strength as well as get him into the mindset to see himself as not a para athlete. I would show him videos of Tokyo Olympics champion Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy to make him understand how to use the vertical position to gain height,” recalls Fischer.
