Archer Sheetal Devi strikes double gold at Para Asiad

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India’s para athletes and archers added several gold medals to the tally at the Asian Para Games on Thursday, with Sheetal Devi winning two archery titles, Shailesh Kumar setting a games record in the men’s high jump and Solairaj Dharmaraj establishing an Asian record in the long jump.

Sheetal won the women’s compound individual title after overcoming Singapore’s Nur Syahidah Alim 142-139. She recovered from an early 55-59 deficit with two consecutive perfect ends of 30.

She then teamed up with Toman Kumar to win the compound mixed team gold. The Indian pair defeated Indonesia 151-148 in the final after edging Chinese Taipei 142-141 in the semifinal.

In para athletics, Shailesh cleared 1.89 m to win gold in the men’s T63 high jump and set a new games record. Varun Singh Bhati took silver with 1.84 m, while Rahul Saroha secured bronze with 1.81 m, completing an Indian podium sweep.

Solairaj won the men’s long jump gold with a leap of 7.15 m, setting an Asian record. India also secured first and second places in both the men’s and women’s 400-m T47 events. Dilip Mahadu Gavit won the men’s race in 48.27 seconds, while Anjanaben Bumbadiya took the women’s title in 59.97 seconds.

Suvarna Raj added gold in the women’s F54 discus throw, while India collected further medals in para swimming, badminton and table tennis. Swati Chaudhary won silver in the women’s W1 individual archery event.

At the end of Day 4, India had won 19 gold, 26 silver and 39 bronze medals, placing it fifth in the overall standings.

India’s Schedule for October 23:

Para Badminton — Gold Medal Matches

• Men’s Singles SL3: Pramod Bhagat vs Nitesh Kumar. The all-Indian final guarantees India gold and silver in the category
• Women’s Singles SU5: Thulasimathi Murugesan vs Yang Qiuxia of China
• Men’s Singles SL4: Naveen Sivakumar is listed for the gold medal match
• Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5: Thulasimathi Murugesan and Nitesh Kumar vs Indonesia’s Leani Ratri Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani.

Para Athletics and Cycling

• Para athletics: Remaining sprint finals, distance races and throwing events at Paloma Mizuho Stadium, as listed in the supplied schedule
• Para cycling: Final Road events

Para Table Tennis and Archery

• Men’s Doubles MD4: Shubham Wadhwa and Jehan Madan move into the later medal stages following their group-stage victories
• Para archery: Team-positioning placement matches at Okazaki Central Park