The Asian Para Games 2018 ended amidst the stunning fireworks and music performances from the Asian stars and county’s top talents at Jakarta on Saturday evening. India also has its best medal hunt in the history of Para Games with the medal tally mounted to 72 including 15 gold, 24 silver, and 33 bronze medals.
China finished in style and secured the top position with a whopping total of 319 medals and S.Korea and Iran on second and third positions respectively. India bettered from the last edition (2014) tally of 33 medals and showcased its best-ever performance and was placed ninth in the medal tally.
The last day of the games saw the medal hunt in the event of badminton for the Indians with Pramod Bhagat won the SL3 class badminton in the men’s singles. Athletes in this category have impairment in either of the lower limbs and have the poor walking ability. Competition is held in half-court (lengthwise) for the athletes with cerebral palsy, bilateral polio or loss of legs below the knee to minimize the impact. The SL4 class athletes have less impairment compared to the SL3 and compete in full-court.
Para Shutler Tarun Dhilon clinched gold in the men’s singles badminton in the SL4 category. Manish Narwal bagged the yellow metal in the men’s SH1 10m air pistol event. With a world record effort, Sandeep Chaudhary secured gold in the javelin throw. Club thrower Ekta Bhyan topped the women’s F32/51 event with a best throw of 16.02m. K Jennitha Anto clinched the gold in women’s individual rapid P1 chess event.
Para-athletics gave India half of the medals while badminton and chess contributed 9 medals each and Para-swimming gave 8 medals.
