The gold rush for India at the Asian Para Games continues. On Friday morning, Harvinder Singh and debutant Vijay Sundi created history by clinching the gold medal in the men’s recurve doubles event. The pair defeated the Chinese duo of Yun Duo and Zhao Lixue 5-1. Minutes later, Nitesh Kumar brought another gold medal by beating Pramod Bhagat in the all-Indian men’s singles SL3 badminton final. Naveen Sivakumar also clinched gold in his SL4 badminton contest.
Meanwhile, in the men’s 400m T64 final, Sandeep set a new record with a time of 52.28 seconds to take gold.
India’s gold medal tally at the ongoing Asian Para Games has risen to 25. They have also won 32 silver medals and 42 bronze medals. Speaking of the recurve final, India and China shared the opening set after both sides shot 35. However, the Indian pair took control from there on, winning the second set 37-36 and the third 38-36 to seal the title and win the contest 5-1 on set points.
The Chinese pair proved no match for the Indian duo, and Harvinder and Vijay had no trouble in sealing the gold medal. Harvinder had lost the use of his legs due to complications from dengue treatment. He was inspired by the 2012 London Paralympics and decided to take up archery.
His international debut came in the 2017 Para Archery World Championship, where he finished seventh. His first major achievement came in 2018, when he won gold at the Para Asian Games.
Harvinder then made history by winning India’s first Paralympic archery medal (bronze) in Tokyo, and later improved the colour of his medal at the next Paralympics by clinching gold in Paris. He was also honoured with the Padma Shri award in 2025.
Nitesh prevails
In the badminton final between Nitesh and Pramod, the former came out on top 21-18, 21-16 to clinch gold. With the loss, Pramod took home silver, making it a one-two finish for India. On the other hand, Naveen defeated Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-17 in 36 minutes to claim the top prize.
Earlier, Bhawna and Pooja had secured India’s first-ever medal in the Women’s Recurve Doubles event at the Asian Para Games. The duo lost 0-6 to China in the gold medal match, going down 31-38, 30-35, 29-39 in the three-set encounter. India’s Parmod also added another silver, clocking 4:09.65 to finish second in the men’s 1500m T46. This was his second successive silver at the Asian Para Games.
