Para Asian Games round-up: Ekta, Narayan, Manish clinch gold as India bag 11 medals

India bagged three more gold with two coming from athletics in a rich haul of 11 medals to maintain its eighth spot on the third day of competitions at the Para Asian Games in Jakarta on Tuesday, PTI reported.

Ekta Bhyan and Narayan Thakur clinched a gold each in women’s F32/51 club throw event and men’s T35 100m dash respectively before para-shooter Manish Narwal bagged the yellow metal in the men’s SH1 10m air pistol event.

All the Indian medals on Tuesday except for the shooting gold came from para-athletics. Bhyan produced her best throw in her fourth attempt, 16.02m, winning the F32/51 event ahead of UAE’s Alkaabi Thekra, who threw 15.75m. Bhyan had come into the competition on the back of a gold winning performance at the Indian Open Para Athletics Championship earlier this year.

The F32/51 class features athletes with significant impairment in hand function. Para-athletics continued to give gold for India as Thakur won the T35 100m final race in 14.02 seconds, ahead of Adawi Ahmed of Saudi Arabia (14.40) and Yiu Chui Bao of Hong Kong (14.62). This was India’s fourth gold from para-athletics.

Athletes in T35 class have coordination impairments (hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis). Thakur, who turns 17 later in the month, then gave India its third gold of the day. His category features athletes with upper and/or lower limb impairment for competition in pistol events.

India also secured three silver medals through Surender Aneesh Kumar (men’s F43/44,F62/64 discus), Ram Pal (men’s T45/46/47 high jump), Virender (men’s F56/57 shot put). The five bronze medal winners on Tuesday are Monu Ghangas, Jayanti Behera, Anandan Gunasekaran, Sundar Singh Gurjar and Pradeep – all from para-athletics.

Ghangas finished third in the men’s shot put F11, which covers vision impairment, and Gunasekaran in men’s 200m T44/62/64 class, which deals with impairment in foot, ankle and/or lower leg but the athletes compete without prosthesis.

Behera bagged the bronze in the women’s 200m T45/46/47 event, which is for athletes with limb impairment. Gurjar bagged the bronze in men’s F46 discus throw which relates to upper limbs affected by limb deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement.

With the 11 medals, India maintained its eighth spot with 6 gold, 9 silver and 13 bronze for a total of 28 medals. Out of these, 15 (4 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze) are from para-athletics. China continued to rule the roost with 73 gold, 32 silver and 29 bronze, followed by South Korea (23 gold, 20 silver and 11 bronze). On Monday, javelin thrower Sandeep Chaudhary won gold with a world record effort.