Officials label Kingdom’s seventh-place finish in 2018 Asian Para Games as success
>> Thailand finished seventh overall with 23 gold medals at the 2018 Asian Para Games, which ended last night in Jakarta.
The Thais also took home 33 silvers and 50 bronzes for a total of 106 medals.
China topped the medal table with 172 gold medals and were followed by South Korea (53), Iran (51), Japan (45), Indonesia (37) and Uzbekistan (37).
Although Thailand failed to reach their goal of finishing sixth in the medal race and being the best among Southeast Asian nations, officials said it was a success as they won more gold medals than their tally at the previous tournament.
Thailand claimed 21 golds medal at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, South Korea.
“I am satisfied with our athletes’ overall performance because they won more gold medals than they did at the previous Games,” said Chutinant Bhirombhakdi, president of the Paralympic Committee of Thailand.
“Also, many newcomers won several medals. We saw several athletes make progress in athletics, badminton and table tennis. This is a good sign as our aim is the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.”
In yesterday’s action, Thailand failed to win a single gold medal although they took several medals in badminton.
In all, the badminton team secured a total of four silver and five bronze medals in Jakarta.
Several Thai athletes will become rich when they return home thanks to bonus from the government.
Under the National Sports Development Funds, a gold medal is worth one million baht in bonus, a silver 500,000 baht and a bronze 300,000 baht.