SportsPara sport
Mona Agarwal beats Avani Lekhara to gold as India open Asian Para Games medal account
Agarwal shot a Games record 250 in the women's 10m air rifle standing SH1 final in Aichi-Nagoya, with Lekhara taking silver for an Indian one-two on the first day of medal action.
Key points
- Mona Agarwal won gold with 250, an Asian Para Games record.
- Avani Lekhara took silver with 249.6, her own Hangzhou record score.
- Agarwal's qualifying score of 629.1 was 0.3 short of the world record.
Mona Agarwal won India’s first gold medal of the Asian Para Games on Monday, beating her team-mate Avani Lekhara in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 final in Aichi-Nagoya.
Agarwal finished on 250 after the seventh series of the final, an Asian Para Games record. Lekhara took silver on 249.6, the very score with which she had set the previous Games record in Hangzhou in 2023. The one-two gave India their first medals of the competition, a day after the opening ceremony.
A record before the final, too
Agarwal had signalled her form in qualifying. She shot 629.1 across six series, a new Asian Para Games qualification record, and only 0.3 short of the world record of 629.4 that Lekhara shares with Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova. She also edged China’s Zhang Cuiping, one of the strongest shooters in the class, for top spot.
Lekhara qualified second with 626.4, and the two Indians then pulled away from the rest of the field in the final. The gap between them at the end was only 0.4 of a point.
The result also turned the tables on Hangzhou, where Lekhara’s 249.6 had been the mark to beat. Three years on, the same score was only good enough for second, and it was an Indian who beat it.
Near miss for the men
India came close to a second shooting medal in the men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1. Mahavir Swaroop Unhalkar finished fourth with 205.9, going out after the fifth series of the final, just off the podium. Rakesh Nidagundi, competing at his first Asian Para Games, was seventh with 141.5.
Both men had come through qualifying, Nidagundi seventh on 619.3 and Unhalkar eighth on 617.4. A third Indian, Anandha Krishnan, finished 13th with 605.2 and missed the final.
Busy first day
The shooting golds came on a crowded opening day for the Indian contingent of 168 athletes. Archer Sheetal Devi equalled the individual world record of 704 in the women’s compound ranking round, and judoka Kokila beat reigning world champion Yi Liu of China to reach the women’s J2 -52kg final, guaranteeing at least a silver.
India’s shooters return to the range over the coming days of the Games, with the women’s SH1 pair now setting the standard for the squad.