Jaimin Bhatt in New Delhi
India ended the World Para Athletics Championships 2025 with a record haul of 22 medals. This compares with the 17 medals won at the 2024 Championships in Kobe in May 2024 and the 17 won in athletics at the Paris Paralympics. The Delhi event saw a record number of countries and athletes participating.
With six golds, India’s standing on the medals table fell to No. 10 from No. 6 in 2024, despite the same number of gold medals. For the first time, Brazil finished top of the table with 15 medals. China, which had secured 33 golds at Kobe, could get only 13.
It is interesting to see the names of the Indian medal winners. There were 20 of them, with Simran Sharma and Preeti Pal winning two medals each. Ten of the medal winners were those who had won medals at the Paris Paralympics (where Preethi had again medalled twice).
| Athlete | Event | Paris Paralympics | Delhi World Para |
| Deepthi Jeevanji | Women T20 400m | Bronze | Silver |
| Yogesh Kathunia | F56 Discus | Silver | Silver |
| Sunder Singh Gurjar | F46 Javelin | Bronze | Silver |
| Sumit Antil | F64 Javelin | Gold | Gold |
| Dharambir Nain | F51 Club | Gold | Silver |
| Simran Sharma | Women T12 200m | Bronze | Silver |
| Nishad Kumar | T47 High Jump | Silver | Gold |
| Preethi Pal | Women T35 100m | Bronze | Silver |
| Preethi Pal | Women T35 200m | Bronze | Bronze |
| Praveen Kumar | T44/64 High Jump | Gold | Bronze |
| Navdeep | F41 Javelin | Gold | Silver |
The dominant performance was clearly that of Sumit Antil – gold medallist in the Tokyo and Paris Paralympics, and with gold medals at the 2023, 2024 and 2025 World Championships. While he threw over 71 metres, the silver medallist was below 50.
In addition, there were three athletes who had finished fourth in the Paris Paralympics who got on the podium in Delhi. These are Simran Sharma (Gold in Women T12 100m), Shailesh Kumar (Gold in T42/63 High Jump) and Sandeep Chaudhary (Silver in F44 Javelin).
Of the 22 medals, 16 came from field events and six on the track. Of the 550-odd medals that were awarded in Delhi, track events accounted for almost 300. Perhaps India could do better with focus on the track. Indians are not generally renowned for speed. However, in para sports, India have done well to pick up early. And we have seen people like Simran, Preethi and Deepthi consistently getting on the podium at world events.
Another noticeable aspect was India’s complete lack of participation in any event on the track that had wheels. Close to 100 medals were at stake in these events. Also, of the countries that finished above India in the standings, Iran was the only one which won all their gold medals in field events. Every other country had a decent mix of track and field.
Of the 22 medals for India, six came on the back of personal-best performances (including both the medal wins by Simran), and nine others came with season’s bests. Perhaps the home crowd had an impact.
Also interesting was the Placing Table on Wikipedia for the Delhi Championships. These tracked performances of the top eight finishers in each event, giving 8 points for gold and 1 point for eighth place. Using that method, India would be No. 4 in the table.
India had as many as nine athletes who finished fourth and missed out on a medal. Interestingly, five of these athletes registered their personal bests, while two others had their season’s best showing.
| Athlete | Event | Delhi performance | Bronze winner |
| Rahul | T42/63 High Jump | 1.78 m PB | 1.85 m |
| Dayawanti | Women F64 Discuss | 27.94 m PB | 29.45 m |
| Dilip Gavit | T47 400m | 48.2 sec PB | 48.04 sec |
| Sagar Thayat | F 43/44 Discus | 51.93 m PB | 52.42 m |
| Nimisha CS | Women T47 Long Jump | 5.74 m PB | 5.84 m |
| Ajeet Singh | F46 Javelin | 61.77 m SB | 63.34 m |
| Pushpender | F44 Javelin | 61.94 m SB | 62.36 m |
| Haney | F37 Discus | 51.22 m | 52.79 m |
| Sachin Khillari | F46 Shot Put | 15.03 m | 15.83 m |
In this list, Ajeet Singh and Sachin Khilari were medal winners at Paris Paralympics. But it was good to see newer names emerge.
Also, apart from medal winners and fourth place finishers, there were as many as 20 other performances by Indian athletes which were personal bests, and seven others which were season’s bests. There were also a few performances way below par which need to be looked into.
Overall, it was a great event, well organised. Despite the unplanned heat and humidity and the rains one evening, the event carried on as planned. The new track and the facilities around were pretty good. The big disappointment though was the lack of spectators. It was important for the city to be decked up to let people know about the scale of the event that was happening. Some learnings, as we go forward.
🚨 NAVDEEP SINGH EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Fresh off his first-ever silver at the World Para Athletics Championships, Paris 2024 gold medallist in Javelin F41, @Navdeepjavelin reflects on his performance.
With F41 not included in the LA28 programme, will he now compete in both shot put and… pic.twitter.com/8sImrpqdaq
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) October 6, 2025
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