Half the Team, More Medals: Inside India's Record-Breaking Asian Para Games

Half the team, more medals. That sums up India's week in Japan. At the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, which ended on 24 October, India's para-athletes won 114 medals: 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze. No Indian team has done better at these Games, and the fourth place on the final table is also the country's highest yet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it "an occasion of immense pride and joy for the entire nation". Here is why it matters, and the names worth remembering.

The numbers

• 114 medals, 30 golds: the old mark was 108 medals from Hangzhou 2023. India had first been credited with 111 there, but three were later taken away in doping cases.
• Fourth place: nine golds on the last day of India's programme took the team to 30, one more than South Korea, and secured fourth behind China, hosts Japan and Uzbekistan. In Hangzhou, India finished fifth.
• A much smaller squad: about 168 athletes went to Japan, against more than 300 in Hangzhou.
• Track and field led the way: para-athletics brought in 65 medals, 22 of them gold. Badminton added 16 and swimming 11, up from a single swimming medal last time.

The standout performances

• Sheetal Devi: the armless archer won gold in the women's compound individual event and the mixed team (with Toman Kumar), plus a silver in the women's doubles.
• Mona Agarwal: two golds in para shooting, including a world record in the women's 50m rifle three positions SH1.
• Deepthi Jeevanji: the Telangana runner kept her women's 400m T20 crown from Hangzhou, winning in a Games record 56.36 seconds and finishing more than two seconds clear of the field.
• Six double gold medallists: alongside Sheetal and Mona, Nishad Kumar (high jump and long jump T47), Simran Sharma (100m and 200m T12), Dilip Gavit (100m and 400m T47) and Pranav Soorma (discus and club throw) each won two golds.
• World records: debutant Sandeep in the men's 400m and Haney in the men's javelin also set world marks in their classes.
• Clean sweeps: Indians took all three medals in several field events, including the men's javelin final led by Paralympic champion Sumit Antil.
• All-Indian final: in badminton, reigning Paralympic champion Nitesh Kumar beat world champion Pramod Bhagat for the SL3 title.
• Thulasimathi Murugesan: the Paris Paralympics silver medallist teamed up with Manasi Joshi to beat a Chinese pair for women's doubles SL3-SU5 gold, and added silvers in the women's singles SU5 and, with Nitesh Kumar, the mixed doubles.
• Archery firsts: Paralympic champion Harvinder Singh teamed up with newcomer Vijay Sundi to beat China for recurve doubles gold, and Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary won India's first medal in the women's recurve doubles.

Every Indian gold medallist

• Para athletics (22): Nishad Kumar (2), Pranav Soorma (2), Simran Sharma (2), Dilip Gavit (2), Sumit Antil, Deepthi Jeevanji, Soumya, Rinku Hooda, Devender Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Sachin Khilari, Ayush Verma, Suvarna Raj, Anjanaben Bumbadiya, Shailesh Kumar, Solairaj Dharmaraj, Sandeep Kumar and Haney.
• Para archery (3): Sheetal Devi (2, one with Toman Kumar in the mixed team), and Harvinder Singh with Vijay Sundi.
• Para badminton (3): Nitesh Kumar, Naveen Sivakumar, and Manasi Joshi with Thulasimathi Murugesan.
• Para shooting (2): Mona Agarwal (2).

For every silver and bronze winner too, see Outlook's full medal list.

A proud October for Indian sport

The Para Games capped a remarkable few weeks: 85 medals at the Asian Games, an Olympiad medal in both sections in chess, and Chinmay Sutar's unbeaten 400 in the Ranji Trophy. We are collecting moments like these on our Chak de India! page.

What this means for you

• Share the stories: athletes like Sheetal Devi and Sumit Antil are powerful role models for children, with or without a disability. Their journeys are worth talking about at home.
• Para sport in Cyprus: if someone in your family has a disability and wants to take up sport, the Cyprus National Paralympic Committee, based in Nicosia, represents Cyprus in the Paralympic movement and is a good first place to ask about clubs and training.
• Celebrate together: community groups planning Diwali events could give a shout-out to our para-athletes. It is a rare chance to cheer an all-round Indian success story.

Read also: 85 Medals and a Historic Hockey Double: India's Asian Games 2026 in Numbers

Sources: Sunday Guardian, The Tribune, Outlook, Outlook (full list), India TV, KhelNow, Wikipedia, AIR (Deepthi Jeevanji), Telangana Today