Para archer Sheetal Devi gained the gold medal in the Archery Women’s Individual Compound open occasion on the ongoing Asian Para Games being held in Hangzhou, China, on October 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Indian para athletes created historical past on Saturday, October 28, 2023, as they ended their Hangzhou Asian Para Games marketing campaign with an unprecedented 111 medals, the largest haul for the nation in any main worldwide multi-sport occasion.
With 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze in their kitty, the Indian para athletes gained 4 medals greater than the document tally of 107 gained by the able-bodied athletes in the Hangzhou Asian Games held from September 23 to October 8.
India ended at fifth place in the medals tally, a outstanding achievement in itself, under China (521 medals: 214 gold, 167 silver, 140 bronze), Iran (44 gold, 46 silver, 41 bronze), (*111*) (42, 49, 59) and Korea (30, 33, 40).
The first Para Asian Games was held in 2010 in Guangzhou, China, the place India had completed fifteenth with 14 medals, together with one gold.
In the 2014 and 2018 editions, India had completed fifteenth and ninth respectively.
The solely occasion India had crossed the 100-medal mark in a significant worldwide multi-sport occasion (Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games) was the 101 gained throughout the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
“We have made history, our para athletes have done the country proud. We will win more medals in the Paris Paralympics than in Tokyo,” Paralympic Committee of India president Deepa Malik instructed PTI.
“However, it is not a surprise for us. We have expected between 110 to 115 medals and we ended at 111, the auspicious number (Angel Number),” she added.
On Thursday, India had gone previous the sooner highest Asian Para Games tally of 72 medals (15 gold, 24 silver, 33 bronze) achieved in the 2018 version.
India gained 39 extra medals than the 2018 version with athletics contributing 55 (18 gold, 17 silver, 20) out of India’s complete of 111.
Shuttlers shine properly
Indian shuttlers contributed the second most medal with 21, together with 4 gold. Chess and archery gave eight and 7 medals respectively whereas capturing contributed six.
On the concluding day on Saturday, India added 12 medals, together with 4 gold. Seven medals got here from chess, 4 from athletics and one from rowing.
Neeraj Yadav started the day for India with a gold in males’s javelin throw F55 with a Games document of 33.69m. Compatriot Tek Chand clinched a bronze with a private better of 30.36m in the identical occasion.
Dilip Mahadu Gaviot added one other athletics gold by successful the boys’s 400m T47 race with a time of 49.48 seconds.
Pooja then picked up the final athletics medal by bagging a bronze in girls’s 1500m T20 race with a time of 5:38.81s.
Chess gamers saved the perfect for the final with a seven-medal rush, together with two gold, on the ultimate day.
India swept all of the three medals in males’s particular person speedy VI-B1 occasion with Satish Inani Darpan successful gold whereas Pradhan Kumar Soundarya and Ashwinbhai Kanchanbhai Makwana bagged silver and bronze respectively. The trio additionally bagged the crew gold.
Kishan Gangoli gained a bronze in males’s particular person speedy VI-B2/B3 occasion. Gangoli, Somendra and Aryan Balchandra Joshi gained a crew bronze in the identical occasion.
The trio of Vruthi Saganlal Jain, Himanshi Bhaveshkumar Rathi and Sanskruti Vikas More gained a bronze in girls’s speedy VI-B1 crew occasion.
On Saturday, India additionally gained the lone medal in rowing with Anita and Konganapalle Narayana choosing up a silver in PR3 blended double sculls occasion.
India had despatched 313 athletes on the Hangzhou Para Asian Games, the largest in any version with 51 Tokyo Paralympians in the crew.
India competed in 17 out of twenty-two sports activities, with the nation fielding athletes for the primary time in rowing, canoeing, garden bowl, taekwondo and blind soccer.
Nearly 4,000 athletes from 43 nations are competing throughout 22 sports activities in 566 gold-medal occasions in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.
The Hangzhou Asian Para Games have been initially scheduled to happen from October 9-15, 2022 however have been postponed by a yr as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
