Asian Para Games: India bags 12 medals including 5 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze

At the 4th Asian Para Games being held in Hangzhou, China, India began its campaign by adding 12 medals including 5 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze to its kitty today.

In the men’s 5000 metres T-11 final, Ankur Dhamma recorded 16 minutes and 37 seconds to clinch the gold, easily breezing past his competitors. Ace shooter Avani Lekhara won gold in a 10-metre air rifle event by a narrow margin of 2.1 points against China’s Zhong Yixin.

In the men’s high jump, Nishad Kumar won Gold in the T-47 category, breaking the Asian Games record by clocking in 2.02 metres. In the same event, Ram Pal was tied with China’s Hongjie Chen for the silver.  

In the Mixed 50-metre pistol event, 16-year-old Rudransh Khandelwal won the coveted silver medal.
 
Earlier, Prachi Yadav bagged the first silver medal for the country in the women’s canoeing VL2 final.
 
In the men’s high jump T-63 event, Shailesh Kumar won the gold medal and Mariyappan Thangavelu won the silver medal. India’s Monu Ghanghas made the country proud by securing the bronze medal in men’s shot put by playing his best throw of 12.33 metres. In the men’s club throw, India swept the podium with Pranav Soorma, Dharambir and Amit Siroha winning the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.
 
India has sent a contingent of 303 athletes who are participating across 17 disciplines at the Asian Para Games. High hopes are riding on India’s 2020 Paralympic Gold medallist Sumit Antil in the javelin.

India is hoping to surpass their best performance of 72 medals at the 2018 event in Indonesia, consisting of 15 gold, 24 silver and 33 bronze medals.