India's October 23 schedule at Asian Para Games: multiple badminton and archery medal matches on opening day
India's para athletes are scheduled to compete across a dense programme at the Asian Para Games on Friday, October 23, with several early medal matches in badminton and archery on the card.
The day begins at 5:30 AM IST with the Para Badminton Women's Singles SU5 final between Thulasimathi Murugesan and Yang Quixia (China). At 5:55 AM IST Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary play Wang Xueqian and Gao Zihan (China) in the Recurve Women's Doubles gold medal match. The Para Badminton Men's Singles SL3 gold medal match, Pramod Bhagat versus Nitesh Kumar, is scheduled for 6:20 AM IST. At 6:45 AM IST Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi meet Zhao Lixue and Yun Duo (China) in the Recurve Men's Doubles gold medal match.
Naveen Sivakumar faces Fredy Setiawan (Indonesia) in the Men's Singles SL4 final at 7:00 AM IST, followed at 7:05 AM IST by the Women's Singles SH6 gold medal match between Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan and Li Fengmei (China). The Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 final, Thulasimathi Murugesan and Nitesh Kumar versus Leani Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani (Indonesia), is scheduled for 3:00 PM IST.
Shooting's P3 Open 25m Pistol SH1 qualification – Precision featuring Nihal Singh and Amir Ahmad Bhat starts at 6:15 AM IST; the Rapid qualification is at 1:00 PM IST and the P3 final is set for 2:30 PM IST (final listed subject to qualification). R8 Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 qualification with Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal is at 6:30 AM IST, with the R8 final scheduled for 9:15 AM IST (subject to qualification). Chaitanya Kulkarni swims in the Men's 400m Freestyle S6 heat 1 at 6:44 AM IST and is also listed for the Men's 50m Freestyle S6 heat 2 at 7:35 AM IST as well as the 1:49 PM IST 400m S6 final and the 3:25 PM IST 50m Freestyle S6 final (both finals subject to qualification). Abdul Quadir Indori contests the Men's 50m Backstroke S5 heat 2 at 7:05 AM IST and the S5 final at 2:02 PM IST (subject to qualification), while Ravi Karthik Budigina is named for the Men's 200m Individual Medley SM13 final at 2:12 PM IST and Himanshu Nandal for the Men's 100m Freestyle S11 final at 2:50 PM IST; Tejas Nandakumar and Suyash Jadhav are listed for the Men's 50m Freestyle S7 final at 3:17 PM IST and Jahangir Molla for the Men's 100m Butterfly S12 final at 4:01 PM IST.
Parmod Bijarnia is scheduled for the Men's 1500m T46 final at 6:17 AM IST and Nimisha Suresh for the Women's Long Jump T47 final at 6:30 AM IST; Praveen Sharma appears in the Men's Discus Throw F11 final at 6:35 AM IST and Amisha Rawat in the Women's Shot Put F46 final at 7:25 AM IST. Ajay Kumar and Sandeep are both listed in the Men's 400m T64 final at 8:05 AM IST, Arshad Shaikh is entered in the Men's C1-3 Road Race final in para cycling at 8:30 AM IST, and Sandeep runs in Men's 100m T44 Round 1 Heat 2 at 2:21 PM IST with a Men's 100m T44 final also scheduled for Sandeep at 5:10 PM IST (final listed subject to qualification). Sharath Makanahalli is named for the Men's 5000m T12/T13 final at 2:30 PM IST.
Para Table Tennis opens with Jehan Madan and Shubham Wadhwa versus Jincheol Park and Kyunghyun Kim (South Korea) in Men's Doubles MD4 Group A at 6:45 AM IST, and Boccia's Mixed Pairs BC3 Pool A match featuring Anjali Devi and Sachin Chamaria against Chinese Taipei is at 7:40 AM IST. The Recurve Mixed Team semifinal has Harvinder Singh and Bhawna Choudhary facing Zhao Lixue and Wang Xueqian (China) at 9:20 AM IST, with the Mixed Team Bronze and Gold matches for Harvinder Singh and Bhawna Choudhary listed at 10:10 AM IST and 10:35 AM IST respectively (both subject to qualification). Men's Javelin events include Haney in F37/38 at 8:00 AM IST and Ravi Rongali and Navdeep Singh in F40/41 at 3:10 PM IST, while the combined F42-F44/F61-F64 javelin final at 4:46 PM IST names Sumit Antil, Sandip Sargar and Mahendra Gurjar; the Men's Club Throw F51 final at 3:30 PM IST lists Pranav Soorma, Dharambir Nain and Amit Kumar Saroha, and the Men's 200m T35 and T37 finals at 3:50 PM IST and 3:57 PM IST name Anubhav Choudhary and Rakeshbhai Bhatt respectively. Para Powerlifting's Women's Team Event has heats at 11:00 AM IST and a head-to-head at 11:50 AM IST for Kasthuri Rajamani, Suman Devi and Jaspreet Kaur, with bronze and gold medal matches at 12:35 PM IST and 12:50 PM IST (both subject to qualification).
A to-be-determined slot remains for the Para Badminton Women's Doubles SL3-SU5 gold medal match between Thulasimathi Murugesan and Manasi Joshi and Yang Quixia and Xiao Zuxian (China). Several matches on the day's timetable are explicitly flagged "subject to qualification," including the Shooting P3 final, the R8 rifle final, multiple swimming finals and the Men's 100m T44 final for Sandeep.