India Win 11 Medals on Day 1 of Asian Para Games, Rinku and Soumya Strike Gold

India opened the Asian Para Games in Nagoya with 11 medals on Day 1, four of them gold, and three of the golds came with a one-two finish over a teammate.

Mona Agarwal set the tone in the morning. She won the women's 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 final with 250.0 points, an Asian Para Games record, edging two time Paralympic champion Avani Lekhara, who took silver with 249.6. The sweep also carried a quota place for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

Nishad Kumar, a two time Paralympic silver medallist in the high jump, won gold in the men's long jump T47 with 7.11 metres. It was his first long jump competition at international level.

Rinku Hooda struck gold in the men's javelin throw F46 with a season best 65.11 metres. Ajeet Singh Yadav followed him onto the podium with silver at 65.02 metres, just nine centimetres behind. Indonesia's Saktyono took bronze at 55.30 metres.

The third sweep came on the track. Visually impaired runner Soumya won the women's 1500 metres T12 and T13 race in a personal best 5 minutes 12.39 seconds, running with guide Bharath Kumar. Radha Venkatesh took silver in 5 minutes 30.90 seconds.

India's other medals filled out a strong first day. Ravanni Valasanaini won bronze in the women's 1500 metres T11 in 5 minutes 41.85 seconds. She was promoted to third after Rakshitha Raju, who had finished third in 5 minutes 31.45 seconds, was disqualified under rule TR6.9 for a breach on clothing, shoes and bibs, IANS reported from Nagoya. Kokila won silver in the women's judo J2 52 kilogram class, and Kapil Parmar took bronze in the men's judo J1 70 kilogram class. In the pool, Ravi Karthik Budigina won silver in the men's 100 metre freestyle S13 in 56.68 seconds.

Where India stands

The tally after October 19 is four gold, five silver and two bronze, good for fourth place in the medal standings. China leads with 62 medals, followed by Japan with 27 and Uzbekistan with 23, according to KhelNow's Day 1 tally.

President Droupadi Murmu congratulated the medal winners in a series of posts on X on Monday, praising Rinku's throw, Soumya's personal best and Ajeet's silver.

More medals are already in reach. In para archery, Sheetal Devi topped the women's compound ranking round with 704 points, matching the world record score, in a separate event we reported earlier today. Day 2 brings finals across athletics, swimming and shooting, and India's three one-two finishes suggest the team travelled to Nagoya in form, not just in numbers.