Nagoya, Oct 23: India ended their para-athletics campaign with a record-shattering 65 medals at the Asian Para Games, with two-time Paralympic champion javelin thrower Sumit Antil among one of the four gold winners on the final day of competitions here on Friday.
Besides Antil, the other gold winners were Pranav Soorma (men’s club throw F51), Sandeep (men’s 400m T64) and Haney (men’s Javelin Throw F37/38).
The medal haul is 12 more than the previous edition in Hangzhou, where India won 53 medals (16 gold, 17 silver, 20 bronze) in para athletics .
The Indian para-athletics team of 62 ended with 22 gold, 19 silver and 24 bronze, the best after China who won 54 gold, 24 silver and 20 bronze for a total haul of 98 medals.
Uzbekistan won 64 (20 gold, 21 silver and 23 bronze) while hosts Japan clinched 51 medals (19 gold, 18 silver, 14 bronze) in para athletics.
India won 13 medals (4 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze) on the day.
Parmod (men’s 1500m T46), Mahendra Gurjar (men’s javelin throw F42-F44/F61-F64), Nimisha Chakkungalparambil (women’s long jump T47) won a silver each, while Sandeep (men’s 100m T44), Rakeshbhai Bhatt (men’s 200m T37), Ajay Kumar (men’s 400m T64), Navdeep Singh (men’s Javelin Throw F40/F41), Dharamvir (men’s club throw F51), and Sandip Sanjay Sargar (men’s Javelin Throw F42-F44/F61-F64) were the bronze winners.
Fittingly, Antil, who won gold in the 2020 and 2024 Paralympics, picked up one of the two last yellow metals for India, leading the country’s medal sweep in the men’s F42-44/61-64 combined event to successfully defend his title of the previous edition.
The 28-year-old Antil, also the reigning world champion and world record holder, sent his spear to a distance of 72.46m to win the gold. He was in a league of his own while competing in the F64 classification.
Gurjar (59.03m), who competes in F42, won silver while Sargar (64.48m), who competed in F44, took the bronze.
Gurjar was placed ahead of Sargar because of his higher RAZA points score, which is used in deciding the rankings in combined events.
Born at Khewra near Sonipat in Haryana, Antil lost his father, who was employed in the Indian Air Force, when he was seven. He initially wanted to pursue a career in wrestling.
But in 2015, when he was 17, he met with a road accident as his motorbike was hit by a speeding truck while he was returning home from a tuition class. As a result, his left leg was amputated.
In field events such as discus or javelin throw, the classes F42, F44, F62, and F64 are regularly combined into a single competitive event to ensure large and more competitive field.
F42 and F44 are for athletes with lower-limb deficiencies (such as differences in leg length or muscle power) where the athlete does not use a throwing/running prosthesis.
F62 and F64 are for athletes with lower-limb deficiencies where the athlete does compete standing up while wearing a prosthetic device or devices.
Soorma picked up the last gold of the day for India in the men’s club throw F51 event while Dharamvir clinched the bronze in the same event.
Soorma defended the gold he had won in the previous edition with a Games record of 32.87m. He had won a silver in the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Korea’s Jiwon Jung took the silver with 28.40m while Dharamvir got the bronze with 27.71m.
F51 is for field athletes who have movement affected to a high degree in the trunk, legs and hands, and low to moderate degree affecting arm movement. All of them compete in seated positions.
Earlier, Sandeep and Haney won gold medals with world record performances in the men’s 400m T64 and men’s javelin throw F37/38 events respectively.
Sandeep clocked 52.28 seconds, a world record, to win the 400m T64 final. He finished 0.85 seconds ahead of Saudi Arabia’s Nour Alsana (53.13 seconds). Indian compatriot Ajay Kumar took bronze in 53.61 seconds.
In the javelin throw F37/38 final, Haney produced a world record throw of 60.49m for the gold, scoring 1116 Raza points.
Iran’s Hormoz Seidikazpounji took silver with a personal best of 50.68m (1009 points), while China’s Yu Chengjie claimed bronze with an Asian record 53.66m (943 points). (PTI)
