Asian Para Games: Nishad Kumar stars as India claim five athletics golds on Day 2
Nishad Kumar spearheaded India’s athletics success on Day 2 of the Asian Para Games in Nagoya on Tuesday, clearing 2.04m to win the men’s high jump T47 in a Games record as the athletics contingent collected five gold medals.
Nishad’s high jump victory completed a golden double after his men’s long jump T47 title on Monday, making him only the third Indian to win two golds at a single edition of the Asian Para Games, joining Sheetal Devi and Ankur Dhama from the 2022 Hangzhou Games. India finished the second day sixth in the overall standings with 35 medals — nine gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze — with athletics contributing 20 of those medals. The 26-year-old Nishad has previously won high jump silver at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 and suffered the loss of his right arm in a childhood accident involving a grass-cutting machine in Amb, Himachal Pradesh.
Deepthi Jeevanji successfully defended her women’s 400m T20 title in a Games-record 56.36 seconds, finishing ahead of Japan’s Niina Kanno (58.92) and Akane Kato (1:00.26). The 23-year-old from Telangana, a former world champion who took Paralympic bronze in Paris 2024, produced the winning performance to retain her continental crown.
Simran won the women’s 200m T12 in a Games-record 24.80 seconds, with Iran’s Hajar Safarzadeh second in 25.02 and Tejalben Damor taking bronze in a personal best 25.23. The Paralympic bronze medallist has been competing with a new guide, Shivam, reported difficulties with recovery after her heat and issues finding suitable vegetarian food, and is scheduled to run the 100m next, an event in which she won silver at the previous edition.
In discus, Pranav Soorma won the men’s F51/52/53 combined discus with an Asian-record effort of 11.66m, Ram Ratan Singh claimed silver with 10.35m and Iran’s Alireza Hemami took bronze; the final used the Raza Point System to adjust for classification. Soorma, 32, had previously won club throw gold in the F51 category at the Hangzhou Games. Devender Kumar led an Indian sweep in the men’s discus F44/64 with gold on 49.71m, while Rakesh and Pardeep Kumar took silver and bronze.
Across other sports, Manish Narwal won silver in the men’s 10m air pistol SH1 with 233.7 as South Korea’s Jo Jeongdu set an Asian Para Games record of 241.3 for gold and China’s Yang Chao took bronze; Narwal’s silver secured India a quota place for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics and made him the third Indian shooter to earn a quota after Mona Agarwal and Avani Lekhara, who won gold and silver respectively in the women’s 10m air rifle SH1 on Monday. Shrishti Arora took bronze (214.7) in the women’s 10m air pistol SH1, and India had four shooting medals after two days. In para powerlifting, Ashok Kumar Malik won silver in the men’s 65kg with a best lift of 192kg as China’s Zou Yi won with 216kg and Indonesia’s Margono lifted 177kg for bronze; Malik, 37, improved on his previous edition bronze. Swimming produced two bronzes: Himanshu Nandal finished third in the men’s 400m freestyle S11 in 5:10.91 (the 22-year-old was born blind due to optic nerve failure) and Niranjan Mukundan took bronze in the men’s 200m individual medley SM7 in 2:57.01, the 32-year-old competing at his fourth consecutive Asian Para Games. Para table tennis yielded five bronze medals for India through Bhavina Patel, Sonalben Patel, Baby Sahana Ravi, Prachi Pandey and Jehan Dorab Madan, with Sahana and Prachi becoming the first Indian para table tennis players to medal in the standing category at the Asian Para Games and helping India surpass its two-bronze haul from the previous edition.
Archery and badminton progressed to decisive stages, assuring further medals for India: defending champion Sheetal Devi beat Japan’s Shinohara Aya 145-137 in the women’s compound semifinal after equalling the world record and setting a new Asian record in qualification and will face Singapore’s Alim Nur Syahidah in the gold-medal match; Swati Chaudhary advanced to the women’s W1 final by defeating South Korea’s Eunhee Lee 6-2, guaranteeing at least silver. India’s women’s compound doubles (Sheetal and Payal Nag), women’s recurve doubles (Pooja and Bhawna) and men’s recurve doubles (Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi) advanced to gold-medal matches, while the recurve and compound mixed teams moved into the semifinals. In badminton, world champion Pramod Bhagat and Paralympic gold medallist Kumar Nitesh reached the men’s singles SL3 semifinals — Bhagat beat Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara 21-12, 21-10 and will face South Korea’s Lee Seunghu, while Nitesh defeated Vikram Kumar 21-8, 21-8 and will meet Indonesia’s Al Muh Imran — and India secured mixed-doubles semifinal places through Bhagat and Manisha Ramadass (SL3-SU5) and Krishna Nagar and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan (SH6), with Nitesh and Thulasimathi Murugesan also moving into the SL3-SU5 semifinals.
With five athletics golds and confirmed medal prospects in archery and badminton, India carried momentum into the next round of competition at the Asian Para Games.
