Asian Para Games: India sign off with record 114 medals as contingent marches at closing ceremony

Indiarsquos paraathletes marched with national flags at the closing ceremony of the Asian Para Games 2026 at Paloma Mizuho Stadium on Friday bringing the curtains down on the countryrsquos most successful campaign at the continental showpiece with a record haul of 114 medalsDouble gold medallist parashooter Mona Agarwal and athlete Nishad Kumar led the Indian contingent as coflagbearers at the ceremony which marked the end of an impressive campaign in AichiNagoya Japan where India secured 30 gold 35 silver and 49 bronze medalsThe tally surpassed Indiarsquos previous best of 108 medals at the 2022 edition in Hangzhou where the country won 27 gold 32 silver and 49 bronze medals after three medals were subsequently revoked following doping violations involving Neeraj Yadav and ParveenIndiarsquos achievement in 2026 was particularly significant given that the contingent comprised 168 paraathletes considerably fewer than the 309 who competed in Hangzhou three years ago Despite the smaller contingent the Indian team delivered historic performances across paraathletics parabadminton paraarchery shooting table tennis and swimmingAmong the standout performances was parabadminton where Paralympic champion Nitesh Kumar defeated world champion Pramod Bhagat 2118 2116 in the menrsquos singles SL3 final to win gold and ensure an allIndian podiumThulasimathi Murugesan and Manasi Girishchandra Joshi clinched gold in womenrsquos doubles SL3SU5 defeating Chinarsquos Qiuxia Yang and Zuxian Xiao 2116 2113 Thulasimathi also secured silver in womenrsquos singles SU5 while Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan finished with silver in womenrsquos singles SH6 after losing to Chinarsquos Fengmei LiIndia also made history in paraarchery with Harvinder Singh and debutant Vijay Sundi winning gold in menrsquos recurve doubles Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary claimed silver in womenrsquos recurve doubles giving India its first medal in the event at the Asian Para GamesParaathletics once again contributed significantly to the medal tally with several athletes producing recordbreaking performancesHaney set a world record of 6049 metres in the menrsquos javelin throw F3738 competition winning gold in the T37 category Debutant Sandeep also struck gold in the menrsquos 400m T64 with a time of 5228 seconds setting a world record in the T44 category while Ajay Kumar claimed bronze in the same raceIndia completed a podium sweep in the menrsquos javelin throw F42F44F61F64 final with Sumit winning gold in T64 with a throw of 7246 metres for 1112 points Mahendra Gurjar took silver in T42 with a Gamesrecord effort of 5903 metres while Sandip Sanjay Sargar secured bronze in T44 with a Gamesrecord throw of 6448 metresPranav Soorma won gold in the menrsquos club throw F51 with a Gamesrecord distance of 3287 metres while Dharambir took bronze Navdeep Singh won bronze in the menrsquos javelin throw F4041 while Rakeshbhai Bhatt secured bronze in the menrsquos 200m T37Sandeep added another medal to his tally with bronze in the menrsquos 100m T44 clocking 1167 seconds to finish the Games with one gold one bronze and a world recordIn parashooting coflagbearer Mona Agarwal capped her campaign with gold in the womenrsquos 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 scoring 3575 points to set world and Asian Para Games records She also became the first Indian parashooter to win a medal in the event at the GamesIndiarsquos paratable tennis contingent added a bronze through Jehan Dorab Madan and Shubham Wadhwa in menrsquos doubles Class MD4 At 50 Madan became the oldest Indian medallist at the GamesParaswimmer Himanshu Nandal won bronze in the menrsquos 100m freestyle S11 in 10590 taking his medal tally at the Games to three bronze medalsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever