2026 Asian Para Games: Mona, Nishad clinch gold; Rinku, Soumya shine in athletics – Highlights
Catch all the Highlights from Day 1 of the Asian Para Games.
Indian contingent officially began their campaign at the Asian Para Games, including medal events in para shooting, para athletics, para swimming, para judo, para cycling and para powerlifting on Monday.
In athletics, Paralympic medalists Nishad Kumar and Ajeet Singh Yadav, and World champion Rinku Hooda, clinched medals on the opening day.
Para table tennis and para badminton, for which action began two days before the opening ceremony, continued with their group stage matches.
Para archers including Sheetal Devi, Payal Nag, Harvinder Singh, Bhawna and Toman Kumar took part in their respective qualification rounds.
Paralympic medalist Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal had a double podium in the women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event.
Indian para athletes were also in action in boccia and blind football.
As it happened:
Do tune in tomorrow as the action continues in Para Athletics, Para Shooting, Para Swimming, Para Table Tennis, Para Judo, and Para Powerlifting on October 20th,
Here is the schedule for tomorrow
Para Athletics: Soumya won gold in the women’s 1500m T12/13 with 621 criteria points, and Radha Venkatesh took silver with 421. Rinku Hooda won gold in the men’s javelin throw F46 with 65.11m, and Ajeet Singh took silver with 65.02m.
Nishad won gold in the men’s long jump T47 with a leap of 7.11m. Ravanni Valasanaini won bronze in the women’s 1500m T11 in 5:41.85, after fellow Indian Rakshitha Raju was disqualified.
Para Swimming: Ravi Karthik Budigina won silver in the men’s 100m freestyle S13 in 56.68 seconds. It is India’s first swimming medal at these Games.
Para Judo: Kapil Parmar won bronze in the men’s J1 -70kg, India’s first judo medal at these Games. Kokila Kaushiklate won silver in the women’s J2 -52kg, losing the final to Kyrgyzstan’s Aibike Ulanbek Kyzy.
Para Shooting: Mona Agarwal won gold in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 with a Games record of 250.0. Avani Lekhara took silver with 249.6, giving India its first 1-2 finish in shooting at the Asian Para Games.
She clocked a new personal best of 5:41.85s to win the bronze medal behind the two Chinese runners.
She was fourth at the finish line, but then fellow compatriot Rakshitha Raju, who was third, got disqualified and lost her medal, handing Ravanni the medal.
Satwik Patil clocked 2:31.28s to finish sixth in men's 200m Individual Medley SM9 final. China's Zhili Xie clocked 2:21.43 to clinch gold.
Rinku Hooda claimed the title with a best throw of 65.11m, while Ajeet Singh took silver with 65.02m to complete an Indian one-two in a three-man field.
Rinku had a slow start in the final and remained in second place until his fifth attempt, with a best of 61.18m at that stage.
He then edged past Ajeet on his final throw by just 9 centimetres with his 65.11m throw and upgraded his silver from last edition to a gold medal.
Soumya clocked a new personal best of 5:12.39s to win the title with 621 criteria points in the combined category of T12 & T13.
Meanwhile, Radha Venkatesh clocked 5:30.90s to earn 421 criteria points and a silver medal.
Another 4th place finish for India as Manish Kumar ends with the highest lift of 181 Kg and misses out on a medal.
He matched the lift of bronze medalist Stanislav Shakiyev, but because he lifted the weight after the Kazakh, he missed out on a medal on countback.
Meanwhile, the second Indian in the field, Paramjeet Kumar, finished in 7th place with the best of 167kg.
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