Greater Noida’s Varun Bhati to jump for glory at Tokyo Paralympics

Para high jumper Varun Bhati, a resident of Greater Noida’s Sector Phi 3, is set to leave for Tokyo Paralympics on August 26

Para high jumper Varun Bhati, a resident of Greater Noida’s Sector Phi 3, is set to leave for Tokyo Paralympics on August 26. India has high hopes from the 26-year-old para athlete who won bronze medal in the men’s high jump T-42 event at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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Bhati, a native of Jamalpur village in Gautam Budh Nagar, has been training extensively at his Greater Noida residence where he has made a whole setup for his practice. Apart from this, the para athlete, who won the World Para Athletics Championships in London in 2017, also trains at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi and at SAI complex in Bengaluru.

Bhati was afflicted with polio in his left leg when he was just six months old. He completed his schooling from St Joseph School in Greater Noida where his inclination to sports started. “I used to play basketball in the school. But after suggestion by one of my sports teachers, I started practising for high jump. In 2014, I went on to win a gold medal at the Open Athletics Championships in China at the age of 19,” said Bhati, who did his graduation (BSc) from Delhi University.

India’s deputy chef de mission Arhan Bagati for Tokyo Paralympics, to be held from August 24-September 5, said that the country has high hopes from Bhati for bringing home a medal. “A total of 53 athletes across nine sports disciplines from India are heading for the Tokyo Paralympics. In the high jump category, we have high hopes from Varun as he has played at the Rio games earlier and also won a medal,” he said.

However, Bhati says he doesn’t expect others to have high hopes from him this time as his performance has not been “up to the mark”. “It is good to know that apart from my family, others are also having high expectations from me. But my performance has not been up to the mark in the last two years. People didn’t expect me to clear the trials for Tokyo too, but fortunately I got selected,” said the Arjuna awardee.

The reason behind this, he says, has been his back injury which he got during the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London. “Though I did get a medal in that game, my back pain got aggravated. Since then, while I have continued to play, the pain did not subside,” said Bhati.

However, the one year delay in Tokyo Paralympics due to the Covid-19 pandemic came as a boon for him. “My injury took longer than expected to heal. But the Paralympics also got delayed due to the pandemic, which allowed me one more year to recover. Had the Games been held in 2020, I would not have even been selected,” said Bhati.

In April this year, Bhati had to lose one month of his training as he was down with Covid-19. “On April 14, I tested positive for Covid-19 and was in home isolation. I was on complete bed rest for a month and felt like I lost out on precious training time ahead of trials for Tokyo. Thankfully, I recovered from Covid in June and got selected for the games. The trials were held on June 29,” he said.

Bhati, who has also won a silver in 2018 Asian Para Games in Indonesia, will be competing in the T42/63 category of men’s high jump at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on August 31. “I am confident of giving my best at the Games and hope I can get a medal for India,” said Bhati.