Basant Kumar Meghwal Wins High Jump Silver at World U20s

A young athlete from India named Basant won a silver medal at a big worldwide sports competition for young people, held in Eugene, United States.

Basant is 19 years old and comes from a small border town called Anupgarh in Rajasthan, India.

His sport is the high jump, where athletes try to jump over a very high bar without knocking it down.

Basant jumped 2.21 metres, higher than he had ever jumped before.

Two other athletes also cleared that same height, so the judges used the number of tries to decide who won.

The athlete from Algeria cleared the bar on his first try and won gold, Basant cleared it on his second try and won silver, and an athlete from Great Britain took bronze on his third try.

Basant was the first Indian ever to win a high jump medal at this competition.

His silver was India's second medal of the championships, after another Indian won silver in the javelin throw.

A third Indian athlete then won a bronze medal in the long jump.

People across India are very proud of him.