Reigning world champion Sachin Sarjerao Khilari won a gold medal in men's shot put F46 event as India recorded their best-ever medal haul at the Asian Para Games on Thursday. F46 events involve athletes with upper limb(s) disability, impaired muscle power, or impaired passive range of movement. Khilari, who created an Asian record with a throw of 16.21m at the Para Athletics World Championships in Paris en route a gold earlier this year, took the top spot in Hangzhou with a throw of 16.03m.
Khilari's effort was also a Games record, beating China's Wei Enlong's 2018 mark of 15.67m. Enlong, meanwhile, finished second with the best throw of 14.93m while India's Rohit Kumar took the bronze (14.56m) in the five-man final.
The 33-year-old, who has already bagged a Paris Paralympics quota, began the proceedings with a moderate effort of 13.42m but warmed up with a throw of 15.11m. He fouled his next attempt but broke the Games record on the fourth try before logging a 15.46m effort. He closed the competition with a foul.
Such was Khilari's domination that three of his four throws would have won him a gold. Hailing from Karagani village in Maharashtra's Sangli district, Khilari met with an accident during his school days which led to disability in his left hand. He lost his muscles from the elbow due to gangrene and despite several surgeries, his arm never recovered.
Undeterred, Khilari pursued his education and became a mechanical engineer. He is also a visiting faculty at various coaching centres in his hometown where he trains MPSC and UPSC aspirants.
{{/usCountry}}Undeterred, Khilari pursued his education and became a mechanical engineer. He is also a visiting faculty at various coaching centres in his hometown where he trains MPSC and UPSC aspirants.
{{/usCountry}}Khilari's gold was the first top finish of the day for India and as the day wore on, medals began to flow. India closed the day with 82 medals (18 gold, 23 silver, 41 bronze), ten clear of the previous best mark set in Jakarta in 2018. The gold medal count, currently at 18, is also India's best ever at the Asian Para Games, going past the 15 top finishes in 2018.
Hosts China continue to lead the medals tally with 393 podium finishes followed by Iran (96), and Japan (104). Iran hold the second place ahead of Japan on account of a better gold medal count while India are currently placed eighth. With two more competition days to go, India look set to realise their 100-medal target. At the recently concluded Asian Games, Indian athletes delivered 107 medals, breaching the 100-medal mark at the Asiad for the first time.
In shooting, Sidhartha Babu bagged a gold medal in R6 mixed 50m rifle prone SH1 event with an Asian Para Games record score of 247.7. China's Chao Dong won the silver with a score of 247.5 and UAE's Abdulla Sultan Hamad Alaryani took bronze with 226.6. The other Indian in the fray, Avani Lekhara, finished last in the eight-shooter final with a score of 119.6.
Sidhartha and Dong were in joint lead after the first series of five shots but the Indian broke away in the next sequence. Dong ran him close with some nerveless shooting but Sidhartha consistently found the inner-10s to keep the slender lead. Sidhartha's precision can be gauged from teh fact that he missed 10s only thrice in 24 attempts and went on an unbroken 14-shot spree of shooting 10s. Dong was on the mark too, but a bad penultimate series where he shot two 9.7s cost him.
The compound mixed archery team of Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar won a gold after defeating their Chinese counterparts Lin Yueshan and Ai Xinliang 151-149 in the final. India also won a bronze medal in archery men's doubles W1 event with the pair of Adil Mohamed Nazir Ansari and Naveen Dalal defeating the Kazakh pair of Nurshat Toleukassym and Sagdat Duisembayev 125-120.
In athletics, Bhagyashri Madhavrao Jadhav and Simran won a silver each in women's Shot Put F34 and T12 200m final respectively. While Jadhav reached the podium with a throw of 7.54m, Simran clocked 26.12 seconds.
Narayan Thakur won a bronze in men's T35 100m with a time of 14.37 seconds. Shreyansh Trivedi also took a bronze in men's T37 100m with a time of 12.24 seconds.
In para badminton, Sukant Indukant Kadam (men's singles SL4), Sivan Nithya Sumathy (women's singles SH6), Manisha Ramadass (women's singles SU5), Mandeep Kaur/Manisha Ramadass (women's doubles SL3-SU5), Krishna Nagar/Sivarajan Solaimalai (men's doubles SH6) and Pramod Bhagat/Sukant Indukant Kadam (men's doubles SL3-SL4) won a bronze medal each.
In chess, Bhaveshkumar Rathi Himanshi picked up a bronze in women's individual standard VI-B1 event.