Indian discus thrower Vinod Kumar’s bronze medal taken back at Paralympics after being declared ineligible

Indian discus thrower Vinod Kumar lost his bronze medal on Monday after he was declared ineligible in the disability classification assessment by the competition committee of Tokyo Paralympics.

Vinod Kumar had finished third at the Paralympics on Sunday after producing a throw of 19.91m, behind Piotr Kosewicz (20.02m) of Poland and Velimir Sandor (19.98m) of Croatia. A statement from the organizers read, “Following classification Observation Assessment in competition and subsequent reassessment by the classification panel, the panel was unable to allocate the athlete Vinod Kumar from NPC India with a sport class and the athlete was designated as Classification not Completed (CNC).”

The statement added, “The athlete is therefore ineligible for the Men’s F52 Discus medal event and his results in that competition are void.” F52 is reportedly for athletes with impaired muscle power, restricted range of movement, limb deficiency or leg length difference, with athletes competing in seated position with cervical cord injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, and functional disorder.