Between attempts at the Asian Para Games, where he won the men’s high jump T44/64 title with a season-best jump of 2.05m at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium, reigning Paralympic champion Praveen Kumar was battling a bout of illness. He vomited and suffered coughing spells during the competition.Kumar had contracted a viral fever a few days after arriving in Japan and been struggling with a cough and fever for most of the week. On Wednesday, he cleared 2.05m to better the previous Asian Para Games record of 1.95m in the T44 category and claim his second successive title.“With the fever, cold and cough, training here became a difficult task, but I continued with short breaks. While my body felt fine during the final, my first jump gave me a severe headache. The mucus from my blocked nose and throat was also troubling me. I wanted to better my Asian Para Games record, and to achieve that in such a condition is a special feeling for me,” Kumar tells The Indian Express from Japan.At the Paris Paralympics, Kumar had upgraded his Tokyo silver medal to gold with a career-best jump of 2.08m, which remains the Asian record. He followed that up with a bronze medal at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi last September, clearing 2.00m despite struggling with a hip injury. The injury continued to hamper him, preventing him from crossing the 2.05m mark in the months that followed. A jump of 2.03m on the national circuit two months ago, however, offered hope of a comeback.ALSO READ | One of Preeti Pal’s training partners was shot dead in May; after winning silver, she pays tributeKumar, who has a congenital deformity in his left leg, struggled with his run-up and take-off while executing the Fosbury Flop technique. “I suffered a ligament tear in my hip last year, which meant I could not generate enough power from the hip during take-off. When I planted my right knee to jump, my hip would hurt a lot and I could not generate the lift. The first focus was to recover, followed by jumping exercises to strengthen the hip muscles and short sprints to build strength in my left leg. Not having a jump close to 2.05m was a bit demotivating, but I knew I had to recover and train fully to regain my old form,” Kumar says. Indian para-athletes Praveen Kumar and Banti, who won gold and silver medals, respectively, in the men’s high jump T64 event at the Asian Para Games 2026. (PTI)Kumar, who initially learnt about high jumping by watching videos online, has trained under coach Satyapal Singh since 2018. With the injury stalling his progress towards bettering his personal best of 2.08m, Singh’s first task was to keep the athlete motivated through regular conversations.Story continues below this ad“Praveen’s strength has always been his smooth take-off and clearance in the Fosbury Flop technique. While able-bodied high jumpers have to bend the non-leading knee during take-off, his deformity in the left leg means he does not have to worry about that aspect. He had good speed on the runway even at a young age and was also good at running the curve. His back-leaning position and flexibility during clearance were always good, and we only had to improve them with time. He is a short high jumper, but he compensates for that disadvantage with almost perfect technique. After the injury, I knew rebuilding strength in his hip would take time, but I kept reminding him of his best jumps. I did not want him to think negatively,” Singh says.With his second successive Asian Para Games title secured, Kumar is already looking towards defending his Paralympic crown in Los Angeles. One of his biggest sources of inspiration is Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics with a jump of 2.38m.“For the last seven to eight years, I have watched videos of Derek Drouin competing at the Rio Olympics almost daily. I closely observe how he generates explosiveness from his run-up and then almost stops at take-off to create vertical lift. Even though my left leg is not as strong as my right, I have been working on building its strength. I am also aiming to increase my run-up by one or two steps. It will take time to adjust, but I am confident I can surpass my personal best next season and work towards defending my title at the LA Paralympics,” Kumar says.