India end campaign with record medal haul

JAKARTA: India recorded their bestever showing in the Asian Para Games by bagging 72 medals, including 15 gold, with the shuttlers adding two golds and three bronze on the concluding day of competitions on Saturday.

With 15 gold, 24 silver and 33 bronze medals, India were placed ninth in the overall tally. China finished on top with 172 gold, 88 silver and 59 bronze for a whopping total of 319 medals. South Korea (53, 45, 47) and Iran (51, 42, 43) were second and third, respectively. This was India’s best ever performance, bettering the last edition’s (2014) tally of 33 medals (3 gold, 14 silver, 16 bronze).

All of India’s five medals on Saturday came from badminton. In men’s singles SL3 class badminton, Pramod Bhagat defeated Ukun Rukaendi of Indonesia

SHUBHANKAR SHARMA

21-19 15-21 21-14 to clinch the gold medal. Tarun Dhillon added another gold for India on the final day of the event by beating Yuyang Gao of China 21-16 21-6 in the men’s singles SL4 class.

The bronze winning shuttlers were Manoj Sarkar (men’s singles SL3), men’s doubles SL3-SL4

pairs of Manoj Sarkar and Pramod Bhagat, and Ananda Kumar Gowda and Nitesh Kumar.

Para-athletics gave India half of the medals (36) with seven gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze. Badminton and chess contributed nine medals each while para-swimming gave eight medals.