Empty stands, golden leap: Shailesh Kumar makes history as Delhi stays away from World Para Athletics 2025 opener

Drum beats, cheers and a leap of faith handed India its first gold medal of the historic World Para Athletics Championships 2025 at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in Delhi on Saturday. The 25-year-old Shailesh Kumar from Jamui, Bihar, was the first from the country to stand at the top of the podium in its first-ever World Para Athletics Championships on top of a glittering Mondo track with a Championship Record jump of 1.91m in the Men’s High Jump T63 final.

The 2022 Asian Para Games medallist bettered his previous best of 1.86m in the T42 category. In para athletics, athletes in the T42 category are allowed to compete in the T63 event.

Shailesh wins historic gold, but local fans go missing

The reigning Paralympics champion, USA’s Ezra Frech (T63), took the silver home with a season-best jump of 1.85m, while India’s Varun Singh Bhati, the former Paralympics bronze medallist, won bronze (1.85m) on countback.

“There was nothing special, but the first special thing was that it was a home ground, so I felt good,” an elated Shailesh said while speaking to the media. “The atmosphere was good here, I was getting support from the home ground.”

He was quick to credit his success to the little things, adapting swiftly to Delhi’s sweltering weather, relishing the comfort of familiar Indian food, and finding in them the quiet edge that powered his victory.

“And the second thing is that the weather here, which we train in India, we get to play here,” he added. “So it was good for me. And the third thing is that we don’t get the Indian food that we get in other countries. So that helped me a lot.”

“It was a little hot in Delhi, we were training in Bangalore for 6-7 months. It was a little cold there, but we came here 10 days ago so that our bodies could adapt. So it was good, I won the gold medal.”

Also Read | World-class Mondo tracks and rich cultural show set the tone for India’s historic World Para Athletics Championships 2025

You heard it from the horse’s mouth. Home ground edge, local food and familiar faces in the stands made a world of difference as Shailesh, who missed out on a bronze by a whisker in the Paris Paralympics, registered his best-ever performance.

Had he been even more candid, Shailesh would have asked for more support.

The majority of stands in the 60,000-seater JLN Stadium were empty. The crowd outside the stadium was missing and hardly anyone knew outside the sporting colosseum in Delhi that something historic was happening.

You can’t fault the government alone. PM Narendra Modi sent a message to the people of the country about how the sporting event will strengthen India’s ability to host world events, as the country hopes to win the bid for the 2036 Olympics.

“By breaking barriers and setting new benchmarks, para athletes have played a vital role in strengthening India’s identity as a rising sporting hub, motivating millions to embrace sports as a way of life,” he said after the opening ceremony on Friday.

The Indian government and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) have put forward the best by upgrading the stadium to make it more accessible to para athletes, besides also laying down two Mondo tracks, best-in-class prefabricated tracks, for Rs 50 crore alone.

Also Read | World Para Athletics Championships 2025: Top international stars to watch in New Delhi

Probably a little more could have been spent on the promotion. The billboards are largely missing, the newspapers have invitations and while radio carriers broadcast the messages, but mostly the promotion has been very scant.

The impact was clearly visible in the stands, where on the first day of the World Para Athletics Championships 2025, only some 500-700 people, by best estimate, turned up. Hardly any fans, but a lot of support staff, family members, bureaucrats and sports body officials.

Yet those handful of support staff and coaches created a memorable environment with the drum beats as Bhati, once a Paralympic hero but without a medal since 2018, broke the drought with bronze.

Very few people turned up at the JLN for the World Para Athletics Championships 2025 tonight. The highlight was these drumbeats. pic.twitter.com/tPDPacJpib

— Ujwal (@UjwalKS) September 27, 2025

A medal, he says, would allow him to sleep in peace tonight, finally.

“It was very difficult,” the 30-year-old Bhati told the press. “To be honest, I have not slept well for the last 7-8 years, but I will get a sound sleep after many years. I guess this is the bottom of the mountain. When you scale a mountain, the top of the mountain is the bottom of another mountain. I am very hopeful that at the Asian Games and Paralympics, I will do much better and hope for medals.

“It has been almost eight years since I won a medal and that is a big wait for any athlete. My performances started becoming better last year, but I have suffered many injuries since 2018, mentally as well. I was tired. In the last two years, I have really done well, but this year I was completely fit and the performance speaks for itself.”

The third and final medal for India came through Deepthi Jeevanji, clinching the silver medal in the Women’s 400m T20.

Three medals on the first day is great news for a country looking to break its previous best of 17 medals at the Kobe Games 2024. Many more competitions and a lot more athletes from the record 74-member Indian contingent are yet to turn up at a world event, which will take place until 5 October. Hopefully, they will have more Indian fans supporting them in the stands.

Also Read | World Para Athletics Championships 2025: Sumit Antil, Preeti Pal and other top Indians to watch out for

For those who don’t plan to come, here’s a message from the latest gold medallist, Shailesh, who beat polio to make India proud – “The more the crowd, the better the performance. I want you to support the para games. So that our para athletes win medals.”

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