This was a great day in the ongoing edition of the Asian Para Games for India in Hangzhou. After collecting 17 medals on each of the first two days, the contingent bagged 30 more, including six gold, on Day 3.
Two of them set world records. This took India’s tally closer to the goal of 100. Truth be told, they look good to get a lot more. As of now, they are in fourth position with 15 gold, 20 silver and 29 bronze medals.
The day started with perhaps the most obvious gold medal. It was Sumit Antil in men’s F64 javelin. The question was by what distance he would win. Antil has this habit of breaking own records. This time, he threw 73.29m to make a world record. The previous record of 70.83 also belonged to him, achieved at the World Championships in Paris, earlier this year.
EXCLUSIVE
Sumit Antil – The Man with the habit of winning Gold and making World Record!
Here is how he reacts after winning Gold in para Asian games 2023, Men’s Javelin F64.
Opens up on the pressure of expectations, aim for the future, societal changes and more.… pic.twitter.com/I49s1UVE7R
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) October 25, 2023
The Asian Para Games gold was the only medal missing in his cabinet. “The cabinet is full, but I want to improve and touch the 80m mark at least once and experience how it feels,” said Antil of his next target. Pushpender Singh won the bronze medal in this event with a throw of 62.06m.
The men’s discus throw F54/55/56 medal ceremony was scheduled for this morning, even though the event got over a day earlier. Yogesh Kathuniya, the silver medallist, was spotted looking at Antil’s performance during the presentation. “I was excited to see how far Sumit bhai throws,” he said.
Javelin fetched four medals other than in the F64 category. In the F37/39 category, Haney claimed the gold medal with a Games record of 55.97m. The F46 category saw a clean sweep by the Indians. Gurjar Sundar Singh won gold with 68.60, which was another world record. Rinku bagged silver medal with 67.08 and bronze went to Ajeet Singh who threw 63.52.
Pooja won the women’s discus F54-55 silver, with a throw of 15.39m. In men’s shot put F57, Soman Rana with a throw of 14.42 won the silver and Hotozhe Sema Hokato took bronze with a personal best of 13.94.
The other medals in athletics came from Narayan Thakur and Shreyansh Trivedi. They won bronze in men’s 200m T35 and T37, respectively. Ankit Dhama won gold in men’s 1500m T11, while in the T23 category of the same discipline, Sharath Makanahalli and Balwant Singh Rawat won silver and bronze. Nimisha Suresh with her effort of 5.15 bagged gold in women’s long jump T47.
The archery team won two silver medals and one bronze. The men’s compound team of Rakesh and Suraj lost 155-150 to China in the final. The women’s doubles compound team of Sheetal Devi and Sarita defeated Korea 154-146 to enter the finals, but lost to China 152-150. Harvinder and Sahil won bronze in men’s recurve defeating Thailand 6-0.
A lot of action took place at the badminton arena. In the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 semi-finals, Pramod Bhagat and Manisha Ramadaas lost 2-0 to Indonesia’s Hikmat and Oktila Ratri and settled for bronze. Later in the evening, partnering Sukant Kadam, Pramod sealed another medal by defeating Sangnil and Teamarrom of Thailand in the quarter-finals.
Manasi Joshi lost to Iktihar Syakuro of Indonesia in the women’s singles SL3 semi-finals, and settled for bronze. The mixed doubles SH6 and SL3 semi-finals didn’t go India’s way but added to the bronze medal tally.
Two bronze medals came from table tennis. Bhavina Patel lost to Gu Xiaodan of China in women’s singles C4 semi-finals and Jehan Dorab Madan lost to Joo Young of Korea in men’s singles C1.
As it stands at the end of Day 3, India are only 36 medals away from the three-figure mark. Many athletes had predicted a count of 125 plus. It doesn’t seem distant.