India won 11 medals, four gold, five silver and two bronze, on the first day of competition at the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, and finished the day fourth in the medal standings. The gold medallists were Mona Agarwal in the women’s 10m air rifle SH1, Nishad Kumar in the men’s T47 long jump, Soumya in the women’s 1500m T12/T13 and Rinku in the men’s F46 javelin throw. The Games run until 24 October, and India has sent a contingent of 168 athletes, 112 men and 56 women, in 11 sports. The benchmark is the 2023 Hangzhou edition, where India won 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze medals.
The argument that this was an excellent start is clear from the day’s results. Mona Agarwal won gold in the women’s 10m air rifle SH1 with a score of 250.0, an Asian Para Games record, and Avani Lekhara took silver in the same event. Nishad Kumar won the T47 long jump with 7.11 metres, Soumya won the 1500m in 5 minutes 12.39 seconds, with Radha Venkatesh taking silver in the same race, and Rinku threw 65.11 metres to win the F46 javelin, with Ajeet Singh second. There were also silvers for Kokila in the women’s J2 -52kg judo and for Ravi Karthik Budigina in the men’s 100m freestyle S13, and bronzes for Kapil Parmar in the men’s J1 -70kg judo and Ravanni Valasanaini in the women’s T11. Sheetal Devi equalled the women’s compound qualification world record.
The counter-argument is that day one is only a small part of a long competition. A total of 11 medals on a single day sets a high bar, but the Hangzhou tally of 111 medals, which included 29 gold, means that India has to maintain a similar pace for a week to match it. The country finished the day fourth in the table, not first, so other nations were also strong. Medals were assured but not yet won in women’s table tennis classes 3, 4-5 and 6 and in the mixed doubles para-badminton of Nitesh Kumar and Thulasimathi Murugesan, so some results were still to come. The early success also depends on events, such as shooting and athletics, in which India has traditionally been strong.
India finished the day fourth in the table even with four gold medals, because the standings are ranked by gold medals first. For the country the Para Games are an important measure of how disability sport is developing. A day of 11 medals, including a record from Mona Agarwal, shows how much the sport has grown in recent years. The athletes involved, from Avani Lekhara to Sheetal Devi, have also become well known figures whose success encourages others to take up sport.
India started the Asian Para Games with a strong day and an Asian Games record. The record by Mona Agarwal came in the shooting, and the other three golds came in athletics. The rest of the week will show whether the team can reach the totals of Hangzhou.