Day 1 of the 4th Asian Para Games and Indian athletes wasted no time in making their mark. Two weeks back, India made history by achieving 107 medals in the Asian Games. No less motivated, another contingent with the dream of crossing three figures started the journey on a strong note.
On the first day, India won 17 medals. Six of these were gold, six silver and five bronze. Eleven medals came from Huanglong Sports Centre Stadium, the athletics venue. The inaugural event, men’s club throw F-51, saw an Indian clean sweep. Soorma Pranav made a Games record with a throw of 30.01m. Dharambir and Amit Kumar won silver and bronze with efforts of 28.76 and 26.93, respectively.
In men’s high jump T-63, it was a fight among three Indian athletes for the top two spots, because according to rules, there should be at least four participants for the bronze medal to be awarded. Shailesh Kumar and Thangavelu Mariyappan sealed the gold and silver medals, with the former jumping 1.82m to set a Games record and the latter 1.80, which was his season’s best.
EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Thangavelu Mariyappan, the Men’s High Jump T63 Silver Medalist is confident that India will secure over 200 medals in the Para Asian Games.
Watch the full interview to know about his inspiring journey.@AgeasFederal @TheRohan22 #AsianParaGames pic.twitter.com/hqP9ZrdwPk
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) October 23, 2023
Men’s high jump T-47 also saw two Indians on the podium. Nishad Kumar took the top spot with a Games record of 2.02m. Ram Pal shared the silver with Chen Hongjie of China, with a jump of 1.94.
Ankur Dhama ran a dominant race to clinch the men’s 5000m T-11 gold medal. Ankur clocked 16.37.29 to beat his nearest rival from Kyrgyzstan by more than a minute.
In between, Monu Ghangas won bronze in men’s shot put F-11 category with a throw of 12.33m, falling short by 0.97 to Iran’s Olad Mahdi.
EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Monu Ghangas shares his reactions after clinching Bronze in the Men’s Shot Put F11 category at the #AsianParaGames.@ThumsUpOfficial @TheRohan22 @BoriaMajumdar @ParalympicIndia pic.twitter.com/D1e0m6F0XL
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) October 23, 2023
Praveen Kumar and Renu Unni were the last medallists of the day from the athletics venue. Kumar made a Games record of 2.02 to win the men’s high jump T-64, while Unni fell short by 0.05 to an Uzbek jumper and settled for bronze with 1.95.
Sadly, women athletes didn’t make it to the podium in athletics. The notable mention was Ekta Bhyan’s throw of 7.10m in women’s discus throw F-53 final, which was her personal best. She will take part in women’s club throw on Tuesday (October 24).
At the Fuyang Water Sports Centre, Prachi Yadav won the silver medal in women’s VL2, with a finish of 1.03.475, 1.002 behind Rustamova Irodakhon of Uzbekistan.
Aruna Tomar won a bronze medal in the women’s taekwondo K44-47kg category. This is a historic feat as she became the first Indian to win a medal in this discipline. In a close 13-12 bout against Chen Tong of China, Tomar clinched the podium spot.
Two medals came from the judo ring. Kapil Parmar lost to Seyed Meysam of Iran and had to settle for the silver in men’s 60kg J1. Kokila won the bronze medal in the women’s 48kg J2.
“We’ll cross 200 medals,” said Thangavelu Mariyappan, the high jumper from Tamil Nadu. Whether the Indian contingent reaches that mark we don’t know yet. What we can see is a strong start has been made.