Sandeep and Haney win gold with world records as India pass 100 medals at Asian Para Games

Two world records in the space of an hour carried India past 100 medals at the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Friday, as Sandeep and Haney took gold on another productive morning at the Mizuho Park athletics stadium.

Sandeep led the men’s 400m T64 from the front and held off a late challenge from Saudi Arabia’s Nour Alsana to win in 52.28 seconds, a new world record. Alsana took silver in a season’s best 53.13, and India’s Ajay Kumar ran a Games record 53.61 for bronze, giving India two athletes on the podium. China’s Huang Ruihua was fourth.

In the javelin F37/38, Haney saved his best for last. He had already thrown 59.72m in the final when he launched his last attempt to 60.49m, well beyond the world record of 57.81m set by China’s Xia Dong in 2008. Iran’s Hormoz Seidikazpounji took silver with a personal best 50.68m. China’s Yu Chengjie threw further, an Asian record 53.66m, but finished third because the combined class is ranked on points.

Into three figures

The two golds pushed India past 100 medals for the second Asian Para Games in a row. By early Friday afternoon the count stood at 103, with 27 gold, 33 silver and 43 bronze, leaving India fourth on a table led comfortably by China. The target now is the 111 medals India won in Hangzhou in 2023, the country’s best haul.

The morning had already brought a world record on the shooting range, where Mona Agarwal won her second gold of the Games in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1, and golds in para badminton and para archery.

More podiums on the track

Sandeep and Haney were not India’s only medallists in athletics. Nimisha Chakkungalparambil took silver in the women’s long jump T47 with 5.37m, behind Sri Lanka’s Dhananjana Wickramasinghe, who set a Games record of 5.52m. Parmod Bijarnia also took silver in the men’s 1500m T46 in 4:09.65, with Sri Lanka’s Puwakpitikande Wahumpurage winning in a Games record 4:03.25.

There were near misses too. Praveen Sharma finished fourth in the men’s discus F11 with 30.64m as Iran swept the medals, and Amisha Rawat was fourth in the women’s shot put F46 with 11.16m.

What comes next

The afternoon session holds one of India’s best medal chances of the week. Sumit Antil, the defending champion from Hangzhou, is due in the men’s javelin F64 final at 4:46 pm IST alongside Sandip Sargar, with Ravi Rongali and Navdeep Singh in the F40/41 javelin and Pranav Soorma, Dharambir Nain and Amit Kumar Saroha in the club throw F51 earlier in the session.