Asian Para Games 2023: Best-ever haul!

India chess players Ashwin, Darpan (centre) and Soundarya. Pics/SAI Media

Indian para athletes created history on Saturday as they ended their Hangzhou Asian Para Games campaign with an unprecedented 111 medals, the biggest haul for the country in any major international multi-sport event.

With 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze in their kitty, the Indian para athletes won four medals more than the record tally of 107 won by the able-bodied athletes in the Asian Games held from September 23 to October 8.

India ended at fifth place in the medals tally, a remarkable achievement in itself, below China (521 medals: 214 gold, 167 silver, 140 bronze), Iran (131: 44, 46, 41), Japan (150: 42, 49, 59) and Korea (103: 30, 33, 40).

Also Read: Arjun, Tilottama bag Olympic quota with silver medals

Dilip Gavit and Neeraj Yadav

The first Para Asian Games was held in 2010 in Guangzhou, China, where India had finished 15th with 14 medals, including one gold. Four years later, India had finished ninth. The only earlier instance of India crossing the 100-medal mark in a major international multi-sport event (Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games) was the 101 medals the country won during the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

On the concluding day on Saturday, India added 12 medals, including four gold. Seven medals came from chess, four from athletics and one from rowing.

Neeraj Yadav began the day for India with a gold in men's javelin throw F55 with a Games record of 33.69m. Compatriot Tek Chand clinched a bronze with a personal best of 30.36m in the same event.

Dilip Mahadu Gavit added another athletics gold winning the men's 400m T47 race with a time of 49.48 seconds. The 20-year-old from Nashik was only four-year-old when he had lost his right arm in an accident.

Chess players saved the best for the last with a seven-medal day, including two gold.

India swept all the three medals in men's individual rapid VI-B1 event with Satish Inani Darpan winning gold while Pradhan Kumar Soundarya and Ashwinbhai Kanchanbhai Makwana bagged silver and bronze respectively. The trio also bagged the team gold.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever