India's First Medal of These Commonwealth Games Comes From a Para Powerlifter From Bihar

Jhandu Kumar won bronze in the men's heavyweight para powerlifting in Glasgow on Friday, India's first medal of these Commonwealth Games. The 28 year old from Bihar finished with 130.9 points after successful lifts of 181kg and 190kg.

His third attempt at 196kg, which could have put him in contention for a higher medal, failed. He was unsentimental about it afterwards, describing a deliberate strategy: take the first lift safely to protect confidence, use the second to get into the medal count, and reserve the third for gold. The failure, he said, was technical, a mistake in his breathing made in haste, and the bar caught in the rack on the way out even though the lift itself had gone up correctly.

Speaking during an interaction organised by the Sports Authority of India, he said the happiness was overwhelming and that he had not been able to sleep since the previous night. The name that carried through the arena when the medal was announced was one his parents gave him after spending everything they had trying to treat his polio.

The route to Glasgow ran through work that had nothing to do with sport. Kumar drove an e-rickshaw to pay for the diet and supplements his training required, which is a common enough arrangement in Indian para sport to be worth stating plainly rather than as colour. He has said his next targets are the Para Asian Games and the Paralympics.