British news journalist Piers Morgan has taken credit for Mariyappan Thangavelu's gold medal at the Rio Paralympics Games 2016 and has said that his motivation was what the Indian needed to win. Later on, Virender Sehwag hailed the high jumper’s performance and congratulated him.
Also read: Virender Sehwag's hilarious reply to Piers Morgan's dig at India's Rio medal tally
Overcoming obstacles and impairment, Mariyappan Thangavelu had earlier created history, when he leapt to glory by clinching the gold medal in the men’s T42 high jump finals in Rio de Janeiro. Cruising over the 1.89-meter mark, the 21-year old high jumper became the first medalist of India in this edition of the Paralympic Games.
The reporter, who is known for his sarcastic comments on social media platform Twitter, congratulated the Indian para-athlete on his victory. He then went on to make a comment about how Thangavelu must have taken motivation from his earlier tweets as he had earlier posted on the social networking site.
Morgan’s dig at the Indian athletes has created quite a furore on Twitter and many have criticised him for his snide remarks.
As reported earlier, Morgan has been involved in a Twitter battle with former Indian cricketer, Virender Sehwag, from the start of the year. The Brit had ridiculed India’s medal tally at the recently concluded 2016 Rio Olympics claiming the Indian contingent should have won more than just a couple of medals.
Sehwag had replied in the same way he used to hit bowlers out of the park and had tweeted about the England cricket team's failure to win the 50-overs World Cup even once, despite being inventors of the game.
The spat had lasted a while, with Viru, as he was popularly called by his fellow team-mates, winning the initial rounds with is witty replies.
However, it remains to be seen if the former attacking batsman engages in the war of words with Morgan this time.
Also read: Mariyappan Thangavelu: 10 things you need to know about India's Paralympic Games gold medalist
Although he did not reply to Morgan’s comments, the former Indian opening batsman has congratulated the Indian medalists from the current Paralympics branding them as “true heroes” who defy all odds. Hopefully, the Indian contingent can still win a few more medals before the Games ends.
