Indian para-athlete Haney bags javelin gold with his record throw

Indian para-athlete Haney established a new world standard on Friday, throwing 60.49 metres to claim gold in the men's javelin F37/38 event at the 2026 Asian Para Games. His final attempt in Aichi-Nagoya secured the top podium spot, arriving just two days after he earned a bronze medal in the F37 discus throw with a personal best of 57.04 metres. These consecutive victories reflect India's growing dominance in continental para-sports competitions. Haney was not the only Indian athlete to rewrite global history on Friday. Sandeep secured gold in the men's 400m T64 event by clocking 52.28 seconds. This performance broke the previous T44 world record held by Nour Alsana of Saudi Arabia by over half a second. Ajay Kumar followed closely, taking bronze in the same race with a time of 53.61 seconds. These historic track and field performances pushed the Indian contingent past the 100-medal mark.

Racking up medals

Badminton and archery added significantly to the Friday haul. Nitesh Kumar defeated compatriot Pramod Bhagat 21-18, 21-16 to win the men's singles SL3 gold, leaving Bhagat with silver. Naveen Sivakumar secured another badminton gold by outplaying Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-17 in the SL4 final. In team events, Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi dispatched China 5-1 to claim gold in men's recurve doubles archery. Silver medals were won by Thulasimathi Murugesan and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan in badminton, Parmod Bijarnia in athletics, Nimisha Suresh in long jump, and the archery pair of Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary. Jehan Madan and Shubham Wadhwa added a table tennis bronze. India currently holds 102 medals, breaking down into 26 gold, 33 silver, and 43 bronze. This places them fourth overall behind leader China. With competition continuing in Japan, the Indian squad aims to eclipse their highest historical tally of 111 medals from the 2023 Hangzhou edition.

With Inputs from Agency Threads and Image Courtesy: ANI