Haider Ali Takes Bronze in Discus Throw at Paris Paralympics

Pakistani Paralympian Haider Ali has secured the bronze medal in the F37 Category Discus Throw event at the ongoing Paris Paralympics. This is remarkably the second bronze and fourth overall medal of his Paralympic Games career. Uzbekistan’s Tolibboy Yuldashev took gold while Canada’s Jesse Zesseu finished with silver.

Haider started strong, with his first-round throw going the furthest at 52.28 meters. Despite fouling, he retained the lead till the third round, where the Canadian overtook him with a 52.81 meter throw.

While Haider could not get into a rhythm till the final round, Tolibboy slowly gained momentum with increasingly larger throws, eventually overtaking the Pakistani and the Canadian in the fourth round with a throw of 53.48 meters.

The Uzbek would then cement his gold medal status with throws of 56.03 and 57.28 meters in the final round. Haider Ali improved to 52.54 meters with his final throw, and so did the Canadian with a throw of 53.24 meters.

Prior to this, Haider Ali already had won a bronze medal in the T37 long jump category at Rio 2015, silver in  the F37/38 Long Jump at Beijing 2008, and gold in the F37 Discus throw at Tokyo 2020.

Haider Ali might feel a tinge of disappointment since one of his four foul throws might have helped him retain his gold medal status. Make no mistake however, the man from Gujranwala has once again succeeded in making the country proud.