India’s para archers lead action in Nagoya as Asian Para Games begin on October 19

India’s para archers, including Sheetal Devi and Harvinder Singh, are among the first Indian athletes scheduled to compete in Nagoya at the 2026 Asian Para Games on Monday, October 19, with ranking rounds set to start at 4:30 AM IST.

Archery features early on India’s timetable, with the country’s entries opening the day of competition. The programme places para archers at the front of the session, and the squad’s schedule covers recurve, compound and W1 classifications. Officials have filed multiple individual, doubles and mixed entries for the opening ranking rounds.

Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi will contest the men’s recurve individual, doubles and mixed ranking rounds. Sheetal Devi and Payal Nag are entered in the women’s compound ranking rounds, while Swati Chaudhary will compete in the women’s W1 individual and mixed events. Bhawna Choudhary and Pooja Jatyan will take part in the women’s recurve ranking rounds, and Shyam Sundar Swami and Toman Kumar are listed for the men’s compound events; Amol Vinayak Breed and Adil Ansari will close India’s archery schedule in the men’s W1 ranking rounds beginning at 9:15 AM IST.

India has brought a 168-member athlete contingent to the Games, with Paralympic champions Avani Lekhara and Sumit Antil named among those carrying the country’s medal hopes. The delegation’s size reflects entries across multiple sports and classifications established for this edition of the Asian Para Games. Team officials have framed the archery schedule as the opening competitive focus for India on October 19.

India returned from Hangzhou in 2022 with a record haul of 111 medals, and the federation has stated the aim of improving on that total at the 2026 Games. Three years on, the challenge is to go one better and make this campaign count.

India’s archery ranking rounds begin at 4:30 AM IST on Monday, October 19 in Nagoya, with the men’s W1 ranking rounds scheduled to start at 9:15 AM IST.