NAGOYA/CHENNAI: Nishad Kumar lost his right hand in a grass cutting machine. Things seemed depressing at the age of six. Yet, he did not give up. He took inspiration from his mother who was a state level volleyball player and a discuss thrower to take up sport. He continued with sport where he sought solace from physical setback. He took off from where he left at the last Asian Games when he won gold.
This year too he became the first athlete in this edition to win two gold medals. Seasoned athletes Nishad and Deepthi Jeevanji helped India to two gold medals at the Asian Para Games campaign on Tuesday. Athletics produced some spectacular results and contributed to five gold medals on Tuesday for India with Nishad emerging as the brightest star. After his T47 long jump gold on Monday, he clinched the top spot in high jump as well to become only the third Indian ever to claim gold in two events of a single Para Asiad. He also smashed the Games record with his 2.04m jump. At the end of day two, India were placed sixth on the table with 35 medals, including nine gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze. The athletics contribution to this tally currently stands at 20 medals.
Deepthi set the pace quite early in the day as she reasserted her continental supremacy by snaring a second consecutive gold in the women's 400m T20 event after clocking a Games record time of 56.36sec. The T20 classification covers athletes with intellectual impairments with challenges in processing information, concentration, and executing race plans or tactical strategies.
The 23-year-old from Telangana is a former world champion and had won a bronze in the 2024 Paralympics. The gold rush continued with the visually impaired Simran (women's 200m T12), wheelchair-bound Pranav Soorma (F51/52/53 discus throw) and Devender Kumar (F44/64 discus throw) also fetching gold medals. Preeti Pal won a silver in the women's 200m T35 event. Praveen Sharma (men's shot put F11), Ayush Verma (men's javelin F53/54), and Hokato Hotozhe Sema (men's shot put F56/57) won bronze medals in their respective events.
Soorma clinched gold in combined F51/52/53 event with an Asian record while compatriot Ram Ratan Singh won silver in a 1-2 finish for India. "When we play cricket, a batsman sometimes bowls. Like Virat Kohli does batting very well. But after a long time, he bowls an over in which he gets (a batter) out," Soorma said after winning gold. "It's a new event for me. I am competing in this event (discus) for the first time in such a big event. I am very happy to do my personal best and break the Asian record.
"My pet event is club throw, this (discus) is my second event. This time I am participating in both the events, discus throw and club throw," said Soorma.
Tejalben bronze effort
Tejalben Amraji Damor, a visually impaired sprinter training at the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence (SAI NCoE), Gandhinagar, won silver in women's 200m T12 at the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya.
Speaking after her medal-winning performance, an emotional Tejalben dedicated her achievement to her coach, Nitin Choudhary.
“I want to thank my coach. There has been tremendous hard work and discipline behind this medal. Even when Sunday was supposed to be a rest day, my coach never allowed our training to suffer. If we had a training session scheduled, he would be there," Tejalben said. She comes from a modest background in Dahod, Gujarat. “We came here with great expectations, immense hard work and a strong determination to win. My journey has involved a lot of struggle, but I was determined that whatever the difficulties, I had to return with a medal,” she said.