HANGZHOU: Indian para athletes on Thursday created history by winning the highest number of medals in the Asian Para Games, taking the country’s tally to 82, including 18 gold. The earlier best was 72 medals in the 2018 edition in Indonesia.
With two more days left, the country is on course of achieving its target of 100 medals in this edition.
India added 18 medals, including three gold, on Thursday. With these, the tally stands at 18 gold, 23 silver and 41 bronze at the end of the fourth day.
India’s position in the medals tally, however, dropped two places to eight, as not too many gold medals were won on Thursday. South Korea and Indonesia moved ahead in the medals tally led by China (156 gold, 128 silver, 108 bronze).
Eight medals, including one gold, were won by track and field athletes on Thursday. Overall, athletics contributed 45 medals out of India’s total of 82, and 14 gold out of the country’s total of 18 so far.
Sachin Sarjerao Khilari won the first gold of the day in men’s F46 shot put with a Games record throw of 16.03m while Rohit Kumar took the bronze with 14.56m. Para shooter Sidhartha Babu then bagged another gold in R6 mixed 50m rifle prone SH1 event. The compound mixed team of Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar won a gold defeating their Chinese counterparts Lin Yueshan and Ai Xinliang 151-149 in the final. ↔ More on P11