Praveen Kumar defends high jump title as India climb to fifth at Asian Para Games

Praveen Kumar defended his Asian Para Games high jump title in Nagoya on Wednesday, clearing a Games record of 2.05m in the men’s T44 final, as India’s athletes kept the medals coming and lifted the country to fifth in the table.

Banti made it an Indian one-two with a personal best of 1.92m for silver.

On the track, Dilip Gavit Mahadu won the men’s 100m T47 in 10.69 seconds, holding off Mohammed Basil by three hundredths of a second, with Basil taking silver in 10.72.

Those golds came on top of the shot put haul earlier in the day, led by Sachin Khilari’s Games record in the F46 class and Ayush Verma’s win in F53. By the end of the third day India had 62 medals: 14 gold, 22 silver and 26 bronze, up from sixth place to fifth.

Silver for Sheetal and Payal

In archery, Sheetal Devi and Payal Nag reached the final of the women’s compound doubles but were beaten 150-141 by China’s Xu Xueqing and Zhao Jing. Manjeet added a silver in the men’s javelin F13 with a career-best 61.03m.

A string of bronzes

India picked up bronze medals across the field events and the track. Shailesh Kumar jumped 5.57m in the men’s long jump T42, and Haney threw a personal best of 57.04m in the men’s discus F37, a big improvement on India’s seventh place in the event at the 2022 Games. Karamjyoti set a personal best of 21.60m for bronze in the women’s discus F55, and Sukhchian threw 29.94m in the men’s javelin F55.

On the track, Anubhav Choudhary ran a personal best of 12.72 seconds for bronze in the men’s 100m T35, Pranav Desai took bronze in the 100m T64 in 11.96, and Sharath Makanahalli finished third in the men’s 1500m T12 in a season’s best 4:11.01.