India Cross 100 Medals at Asian Para Games as Sandeep and Haney Set World Records in Nagoya

India's para athletes produced one of their best sessions of the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Friday. Two world records on the track and field, a pair of badminton titles and an archery gold in the morning pushed the country past the 100-medal mark, with India placed fourth in the overall standings.

Two world records in one session

The headline performance came from Sandeep, who won the men's 400m T64 final at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in a world-record 52.28 seconds. He beat Saudi Arabia's Nour Alsana by 0.85 seconds. Fellow Indian Ajay Kumar took bronze in 53.61 seconds, a Games record, giving India two places on the podium. The T44 and T64 classes, both for athletes with lower-limb impairments, often race together, which is why the field mixed categories.

At the same venue, Haney produced a world-record throw of 60.49m to win the men's javelin F37/38 final. The margin was enormous: Iran's Hormoz Seidikazpounji took silver with a personal best of 50.68m, almost 10 metres shorter. Because F37 and F38 athletes compete together and are ranked on Raza points, which adjust for classification, China's Yu Chengjie finished third despite a longer Asian-record throw of 53.66m.

Badminton and archery add to the haul

In para badminton, Nitesh Kumar beat compatriot Pramod Bhagat 21-18, 21-16 in an all-Indian men's singles SL3 final, so India took both gold and silver. Naveen Sivakumar then won the men's singles SL4 title. Thulasimathi Murugesan settled for silver in the women's singles SU5 final after losing to China's Yang Qiu Xia.

Para archers Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi beat a Chinese pair 5-1 to win the men's recurve doubles final, while Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary took silver in the women's event.

Silver linings in athletics

The morning also brought two silvers on the track and in the pit. Nimisha Chakkungalparambil jumped 5.37m for second place in the women's long jump T47, behind Sri Lanka's Dhananjana Wickramasinghe, who set a Games record of 5.52m. Parmod Bijarnia clocked 4:09.65 for silver in the men's 1500m T46, finishing well clear of the bronze medallist. Praveen Sharma in the discus F11 and Amisha Rawat in the shot put F46 both finished just off the podium in fourth.

Why the 100-medal mark matters

Crossing 100 medals is a symbolic milestone for Indian para sport, which has grown quickly over the past few Paralympic cycles. A deep spread of medals across athletics, badminton, archery and shooting shows that India's success is no longer resting on a handful of stars.

Our earlier reports from the Games covered Nishad Kumar's second gold and other standout results from earlier in the week. With the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics the next major target, Friday's world records from Sandeep and Haney mark them out as athletes to watch.

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