Asian Para Games Day 5: India one medal away from 100-medal mark

India won 17 medals on the fifth day of the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China with the Para Shuttlers contributing the most medals on Friday.

With just one day left in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, India is placed sixth in the standings with 25 gold, 29 silver, and 45 bronze, below China (196 gold, 159 silver, 138 bronze), Japan (39, 44, 56), Iran (39, 39, 37), Korea (28, 30, 37) and Indonesia (26, 21, 32).

On Thursday, India bettered the previous highest Asian Para Games tally of 72 medals (15 gold, 24 silver, 33 bronze) achieved in the 2018 edition.

The Indian contingent is set to emulate their able-bodied counterparts who won a record haul of 107 medals in the Asian Games earlier this month.

Sheetal Devi emerged as the star of the day as the 16-year-old archer from Jammu and Kashmir became the first-ever female Indian para-athlete to win two gold medals in the same edition.

She clinched the women's compound gold to add to the other gold medal in the compound mixed team event on Thursday. In fact, it is a hat-trick of medals as she also won a silver in the women's doubles compound event.

Ankur Dhama had become the first Indian to win two gold medals in a single edition earlier this week.

Another Indian archer, Rakesh Kumar defeated Iran's Alisin Manshaezadeh in 144(10)-144(9) in a shoot-off to win the silver medal in the men's compound event.

Suyash Narayan Jadhav won India's first medal in swimming in Hangzhou as he picked up a bronze in men's 50m butterfly S7, clocking 32.22 seconds.

In athletics, which contributed six medals on Friday, Raman Sharma and Dharamraj Solairaj picked up a gold medal each in men's 1500m T38 and long jump T64 events.

Indian shuttlers register their best-ever campaign

Paralympian Pramod Bhagat led the gold rush in Para-badminton as Indian shuttlers clinched four gold medals on Friday.

Pramod Bhagat (SL3), Suhas Yathiraj (SL4), and Thuslimathi Murugesan (SU5) won the gold in the singles category while Nitesh Kumar/Tarun took the gold in men's doubles SL3/SL4.

India has won a total of 21 medals in Para-Badminton including four gold, four silver, and thirteen bronze medals at the continental showpiece.