At the 5th Asian Para Games being held in Japan, Indians are winning a haul of medals.
On Tuesday, the second day of the medal events, India won 22 medals in a single day, including 5 gold, 5 silver, and 12 bronze. India is in 6th place on the medal table with a total of 35 medals.
In the table tennis standing category, Tamil Nadu’s Baby Sahana and Prachi Pandey became the first Indians to win medals for India, while athlete Nishad Kumar set a record by becoming the third Indian to win 2 gold medals in a single Asian Games.
Swimming
In the men's 400m freestyle S11 category, India's Himanshu Nandal finished in 5 minutes, 10.91 seconds to take third place. In the men's 200m individual medley SM7 category, Niranjan Mukundan clocked 2 minutes, 57.01 seconds to win bronze.
Shooting
In the men's 10m air pistol SH1 category final, Manish Narwal won silver with 233.7 points. He also secured a quota place for India at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games. It is worth noting that Manish had also won bronze in the 2023 edition.
In the women’s 10m air pistol SH1 category, debutant shooter Srishti Arora won the bronze medal with 214.7 points.
Powerlifting
In the men’s 65 kg category, Ashok Kumar Malik lifted 192 kg to win the silver medal. In the men’s 72 kg category, Jandu Kumar lifted 190 kg and finished in 5th place. In the women’s 61 kg category, India’s Suman Devi lifted 101 kg and Seema Rani lifted 96 kg, finishing 6th and 7th respectively.
Table Tennis
Bhavina Patel, Sonalben Patel, Prachi Pandey, Baby Sahana, and Jagan Madan exited with bronze medals after losing in the semifinals in their respective categories.
In this, Prachi and Baby made history by becoming the first Indians to win medals in standing table tennis at the Asian Para Games. While India had won only 2 bronzes in table tennis in 2023, that number has now increased to 5.
In the women’s Class 9 category, Baby Sahana lost to China’s Mao Jingdian, who won gold at the Paralympics, by 8-11, 2-11, 4-11. In the Class 6 category, Prachi was defeated by Iraq’s Najla Al Dayeni, the reigning Paralympic champion, by 9-11, 2-11, 8-11.
In the Class 4-5 category, Bhavina Patel lost to China’s Zhang Bian 7-11, 5-11, 7-11. In the Class 3 category, Sonalben was defeated by South Korea’s Jiu Yun 7-11, 5-11, 6-11. In the men’s Class 1 category, Jagan Madan lost to South Korea’s Hyunuk Kim 4-11, 7-11, 3-11.
Archery
In this sport, Indians have secured medals in 5 categories.
In the semifinal of the para compound women’s individual event, Sheetal Devi defeated Japan’s Aya Shinohara 145-137 and advanced to the final.
She, along with Payal Nag, advanced to the final in the women’s doubles category after defeating the Thai pair 151-135 in the semifinals.
In the W1 women’s semifinal, Swathi Choudhary defeated South Korea’s Yunhee Lee 6-2 to advance to the final.
In the para recurve men’s doubles, the Harvinder Singh/Chandy Vijay pair defeated the South Korean duo 5-4 to advance to the final.
In the para recurve women’s doubles, the Pooja/Bhavana pair defeated the Iranian duo 6-2 to advance to the final.
In the para compound men’s individual event, Thoman Kumar lost to China’s Jinliang Ai 144-149 and has moved into the bronze medal round.
In the men’s doubles para compound event, the pair of Thoman Kumar/Shyam Sundar Swami lost 155-156 to the Chinese pair in the semifinals and have advanced to the bronze medal match.
Badminton
World champion Pramod Bhagat and Paralympic champion Nitesh Kumar have advanced to the semifinals in the men’s singles SL3 category and secured a medal.
In the quarterfinals, Pramod Bhagat defeated Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara 2-0. Nitesh Kumar also beat fellow Indian Vikram Kumar by the same score. In the women’s singles SL3 category, Sanjana Kumari defeated China’s Liu Yumei 2-0.
In the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 category, the pair of Pramod Bhagat/Manisha Ramdass, and Krishna Nagar/Sumithi Sivan in the SH6 category have advanced to the semifinals.
In the women’s doubles WH1, H2 category, the pair of Alfia James/Pallavi Kaluvehalli defeated the Chinese pair 2-1 to reach the semifinals.
Athletics
200 m: In the women’s 200-meter T12 category, Simran finished first in 24.80 seconds and clinched the gold with a competition record. For the athlete who had already won silver at the Asian Para Games (2023), this is her first gold. Another Indian, debutant Tejalben Thamor, clocked 25.23 seconds to win bronze.
Shot put: In the men’s shot put F11 category, Praveen Sharma won the bronze medal with a personal best of 13.86 meters.
400 m: In the women’s 400 m T20 category, Deepti Jeevanji reached the finish line in 56.36 seconds and won the gold medal with a championship record. For her, who was also the champion in 2023, this is her second consecutive gold.
Javelin throw: In the men’s javelin throw F53/54 category, Pradeepkumar won the silver medal with a personal best of 27.45 meters. Another Indian, Ayush Verma, set a personal best of 17.88 meters to claim the bronze. Pradeepkumar had also won silver in the 2023 edition of the competition.
Discus throw: In the men’s discus throw F51/52/53 category, Pranav Soorma won gold with a meet record of 11.66 meters, while Ram Ratan Singh won the silver medal with 10.35 meters.
In the men’s F44/64 category, Devendra Kumar won gold (F44) with 49.71 meters, Rakesh won silver (F44) with 49.35 meters, and Pradeep Kumar impressed by winning bronze (F64) with 51.15 meters.
High jump: In the men’s high jump T47 category, Nishad Kumar cleared 2.04 meters to win gold with a meet record.
Already in the ongoing competitions, this is Nishad’s second gold, after winning gold in the men’s long jump T47 category. With this, Nishad became the third Indian to win two gold medals in a single Asian Games.
Track athlete Ankur Dhama (2023) and archer Sheetal Devi (2023) are the first two.