India win 14 para athletics medals as Nishad becomes third Indian with two golds at Asian Para Games
Indian para track and field athletes won 14 medals, including five golds, in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan on Tuesday (October 20, 2026) at the 5th Asian Para Games, with Nishad Kumar becoming the third Indian to claim two gold medals at a single edition of the Games.
Nishad had secured a gold in the long jump T47 on Monday (October 19) and on Tuesday cleared 2.04m to win the men's high jump T47, setting a new Games record; the T47 class is for athletes with upper limb impairments. Nishad lost his right arm at age six when a grass-cutting machine severed it on his family farm in Amb, Himachal Pradesh.
Deepthi Jeevanji opened India’s gold tally for the day by winning the women's 400m T20 in 56.36sec, a Games record; the 23-year-old from Telangana also holds the Asian record and is a two-time Para World Championships medallist with a 2024 world title. Deepthi is from a remote village in Warangal, her parents are small farmers who also worked as labourers, and she was first identified by a school physical education teacher before receiving support from Pullela Gopichand, who suggested testing for intellectual disability.
Simran Sharma won the women's 200m T12 in 24.80sec to set a new Games record, while Tejalben Damor took bronze in 25.23sec in her continental debut; the T12 classification covers athletes with moderate visual impairment. Simran, 26, won bronze at the 2024 Paralympics and is competing with a new guide, Shivam, after her former guide Umar Saifi was banned for a doping violation; she was born prematurely in Burari, Delhi, had impaired vision that limits sight beyond 10m and spent seven months in an incubator.
In the combined men's discus throw F51/52/53, Pranav Soorma won gold with an Asian record throw of 11.66m on his fourth attempt and Ram Ratan Singh claimed silver. Soorma, 32, had previously won gold in the club throw F51 at the last Asian Para Games and at the 2024 Paralympics; at 16 a cement sheet fell on him causing a spinal cord injury that left him paralysed, he spent six months in hospital, later took up para sport, scored 91.2% in his 12th exams, completed a postgraduate degree in commerce from the Delhi School of Economics and works as an Assistant Manager at a bank.
India completed a podium sweep in the men's discus F44/64 with Devender Kumar taking gold with a throw of 49.71m, Rakesh silver and Pardeep Kumar bronze. Devender, 32, was born in Kishkandha village in Charkhi Dadri, Haryana; at 21 he and his mother met with a major accident that fractured his left leg and required hip surgery and two months in hospital. The F44 and F64 classifications are for athletes with lower limb impairments, with F44 competing without a prosthesis and F64 with a prosthesis.
Additional medals on the day included Preeti Pal’s silver in the women's 200m T35, and bronze medals for Praveen Sharma (men's shot put F11), Ayush Verma (men's javelin F53/54) and Hokato Hotozhe Sema (men's shot put F56/57).
India added five golds, four silvers and five bronzes on the second day of para athletics competition, taking the sport’s overall medal total to 20 and placing India second in the para athletics count behind China, which had 23 medals (13 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze).
