Para Sports
68-member Indian team to compete in 10th Asia-Pacific Deaf Games
India will compete in seven disciplines – athletics, badminton, chess, judo, table tennis, taekwondo and wrestling.
A 68-member Indian team will leave for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday to compete in the prestigious Asia-Pacific Deaf Games, which is at par with the Asian Games for individuals with speech and hearing impairment.
The tournament, which is seen as a precursor to the Deaflympics in Japan next year, is scheduled from December 1 to 8 in Kuala Lumpur.
Team India will be competing in seven disciplines – athletics, badminton, chess, judo, table tennis, taekwondo and wrestling.
SAI organised national camps for wrestling at NCOE Sonepat besides badminton and judo disciplines at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi from November 15 to 30.
A national camp for athletics, chess, and table tennis was organised at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium from November 21 to 30. SAI Regional Centre Lucknow conducted the camp for taekwondo on the same dates.
Asia-Pacific Deaf Games were last held in 2015 in Taiwan, where Indians had clinched three gold and two silver medals.
The 2019 edition was canceled due to political unrest in Hong Kong. The current edition of the tournament was scheduled to be held in October in Tehran. However, it was transferred to Malaysia due to a war-like situation in Iran.
2022 Deaflympics gold medal-winning shuttler Gouranshi Sharma, who will be competing in the women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles categories, is targeting another medal in Kuala Lumpur.
“I had won gold in the World Championships in Brazil and UNICEF brand ambassador for specially-abled persons. I was recently invited to the USA for a conference on people with disabilities. The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYAS) has helped deaf players a lot from organizing camps to taking care of our travel expenses for the Asia-Pacific Deaf Games. I am extremely thankful to the govt for their support and I am confident that all the hard work we have put in with their help will get converted into a medal,” Gouranshi told SAI Media through her interpreter.
Balram, the reigning national champion in the discus throw, had come close to winning an international medal on a number of occasions. But he has prepared hard this time to break the jinx.
“I came fifth in the discus throw event in the 2022 Deaflympics in Brazil. In the 2015 Asia-Pacific Deaf Games in Taiwan, I came fourth. I have practiced hard this time and expect to win a medal in Malaysia. My eventual target is to clinch gold in next year’s Deaflympics, for which I have already started preparing. I want to thank SAI and the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports for all the support,” said Balram through the interpreter.
Top medal contenders in the team include double Deaflympics gold medallist Abhinav Sharma, 2022 Deaflympics champion shuttler Jerlin Anika and Amit, a bronze medal-winning wrestler in 86kg class in 2022 Deaflympics. For the first time, chess has been included in the Asia-Pacific Deaf Games and a seven-member team led by Mallika Handa is set to compete there.
