India’s Deepthi Jeevanji clinched the gold medal in the Asian Para Games’ women’s 400m T20 event after clocking a Games record time of 56.36sec in Nagoya on Tuesday (October 20, 2026).
The 23-year-old from Telangana is a two-time Para World Championships medallist, having won the gold in 2024. She is also a Paralympic bronze winner in the same event.
On Tuesday (October 20, 2026), Japan’s Niina Kanno (58.92sec) won the silver and her compatriot Akane Kato (1:00.26sec) took bronze.
The T20 classification covers athletes with intellectual impairments. Athletes in this category experience challenges with processing information, concentration, and executing race plans or tactical strategies.
Pradeep bags silver, Ayush gets bronze in men’s javelin throw F53/54
Pradeep Kumar claimed his second successive silver medal, while Ayush Verma fetched a bronze in the Asian Para Games’ men’s javelin throw F53/54 event.
Pradeep (F54) produced a personal best throw of 27.45m to finish second.
Ayush (F53) ensured a double podium for India by clinching the bronze after logging Raza points despite a comparatively shorter throw of 17.88m.
The 35-year-old finished ahead of Thailand’s Sahar-dam Yaena (F54), who threw 23.31m, owing to the higher degree of his disability that fetched him more Raza points.
Raza points is a method by which performances are converted to scores taking into account the degree of disability when a competition clubs different classifications into one event.
Iran’s Erfan Bandori successfully defended his gold with a Games record throw of 30.24m.
F53 athletes typically have full function of their arms and hands, but lack abdominal muscles and lower spinal muscle activity, leading to no sitting balance.
F54 athletes have full upper muscle power in the arms and partial-to-full trunk muscle power, though movement in the mid-trunk and legs is still affected to a high degree.
Bhavina, Sonalben win bronze
Bhavina Patel and Sonal Patel secured bronze medals after losing their respective women’s singles table tennis semifinals at the Asian Para Games.
Bhavina lost her Class 4-5 semifinal to China’s eight-time Paralympic champion Zhang Bian 0-3, while Sonalben too went down in straight games to three-time Paralympic medallist South Korea’s Jiyu Yoon in the Class 3 semifinals.
Bhavina, a former Paralympic silver-medallist, went down 7-11, 5-11, 7-11 to end with a second successive bronze at the mega-event.
She had won a silver in the 2018 edition of the Games. The 40-year-old Bian was a silver medallist at the previous Asian Para Games.
The 39-year-old Indian veteran from Gujarat is also a former Commonwealth Games gold-winner.
Class 4-5 classification is for athletes who have full upper body control but are on a wheelchair due to leg or lower-limb impairments.
Sonalben, who won the doubles silver at the Jakarta edition of the Games in 2018, was defeated 7-11 5-11 6-11 by defending champion Yoon.
Class 3 is a wheelchair category for athletes with poor sitting balance and limited trunk control, but normal or near-normal arm and hand function.
Praveen Kumar bags bronze in shot put F11 with personal best thro
Praveen Kumar came up with a personal-best throw to clinch the bronze medal in the men’s shot put F11 event of the Asian Para Games.
The 19-year-old hurled the iron ball to a distance of 13.86 metres to finish third on the podium in a field of six athletes.
Amirhossein Alipour of Iran set an Asian record with a throw of 14.99 metres to take the gold medal, while his compatriot Mahdi Olad claimed the silver with a throw of 13.93 metres.
The F11 category in shot put is for athletes with complete or near-complete visual impairment.
Mixed doubles pairs assure India of medals in para badminton
The mixed doubles pairs of Pramod Bhagat and Manisha Ramdass and Krishna Nagar and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan moved to the semifinals of their respective events, assuring India of two medals in badminton at the Asian Para Games.
Nagar and Nithya defeated the Chinese Taipei duo of Wu Yu-yen and Lin Jia-siang 21-15, 21-10 to finish second in Group A and qualify for the semifinals in the SH6 class, which is designated for athletes with short stature caused by conditions such as achondroplasia or other genetic variations.
Bhagat and Ramdass, meanwhile, defeated Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom and Chanida Srinavakul 21-15, 21-14 in the SL3-SU5 quarterfinals.
In para-badminton, SL3 is for players with significant lower-limb impairment who compete on half a court, while SU5 is for players with upper-limb impairment.
In mixed doubles SL3-SU5, pairs combine athletes from these two classifications.
Nagar and Bhagat will play their singles quarterfinals later in the day.
Published – October 20, 2026 07:46 am IST
