bengaluru differentlyabled high jumper hn girisha did india proud opening the countrys account with a silver medal at the prestigious world games organized by the international wheelchair and amputee sports iwas federation in sochi russia on tuesday the star paraathlete from hassan district in karnataka who became the toast of the nation after winning the silver medal at the london paralympic games in 2012 cleared 169 metres competing in the f42 category to win the second place polands lukasz mamczarz 178m took the gold while his compatriot marcel jaroslawski 150m settled for bronze at the south sports athletics centre in sochi it was a creditable achievement for girisha who has a personal best of 175m as he went into the meet after recovering from a crippling bout of dengue i am happy with my performance as i was down with dengue last month ive won two international medals after recovering from it the first was a bronze at the brazilian international athletics championship where i cleared 171 metres i qualified for next years rio paralympic games thanks to this effort all these competitions will prove crucial helping me in my preparations towards a medal in rio the 27yearold girisha told toi from sochi tuesdays silver was also girishas third medal at the iwas games in 2007 and 2009 he had won bronze with the paralympic committee of india pci suspended by the world body and also by the central government most of the paraathletes in the indian contingent pooled in their own money to travel to sochi however girisha had no such problems as he is part of the target olympic podium top scheme only pci has been suspended they have allowed indian athletes to compete under the national flag he said