Three medals in a day! Thulasimathi Murugesan completes Asian Para Games campaign with gold

NEW DELHI: Thulasimathi Murugesan produced a memorable triple medal performance at the 2026 Asian Para Games on Friday, winning a gold and two silver medals as the Indian para badminton contingent enjoyed a productive day in Aichi-Nagoya.The 24-year-old silver medalist from the Paris Paralympics capped her campaign with gold in the SL3-SU5 women’s doubles, defeating Manasi Joshi of China, Yang Qiuxia and Xiao Zuxian 21-16, 21-13 in the final. The Indian pair finished the competition in just 28 minutes.Thulasimathi earlier settled for silver in the SU5 women’s singles final, losing 18-21, 11-21 to China’s Yang. She then teamed up with Nitesh Kumar in the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles final, but the Indian combination fell 21-11, 19-21, 14-21 to Indonesians Leani Ratri Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani.

Nitesh, Naveen strike gold for India

Nitesh, the Paris Paralympic champion, enjoyed his successful day by winning gold in men’s singles SL3 before adding silver in mixed doubles with Thulasimathi.The 31-year-old beat compatriot and Tokyo Paralympic gold medalist Pramod Bhagat 21-18, 21-16 in the men’s singles final.“The last time I was close, I was leading 19-16 in the third set and then I lost. So to win it this time and to win again in straight sets against Pramod is obviously very special and I think it’s one of the rarest things to see,” said Nitesh after his victory.Naveen Sivakumar added another gold for India as he beat Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-17 in the SL4 men’s singles final. On his debut at the Asian Para Games, Naveen completed the victory in 36 minutes.After winning gold in the 2018 and 2022 editions, Pramod had to settle for silver. India’s Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan also claimed silver in the SH6 women’s singles final after losing to China’s Li Fengmei.

India is closing in on its best ever medal tally

India continued to collect medals across disciplines on Friday. Para shooter Mona Agarwal won her second gold of the Games in the SH1 final of the women’s 50m 3 positions, setting a world record with 357.5 points. She finished 3.8 points ahead of China’s Cuiping Zhang.In para archery, Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi won the men’s doubles gold. Sandeep won the men’s 400m T64 title, while Haney won gold in the men’s javelin F37/38.India also added silver medals through Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan, Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary in women’s doubles, Parmod Bijarnia in men’s 1500m T46 and Nimisha Suresh in women’s long jump T47. Jehan Madan and Shubham Wadhwa secured bronze in MD4 men’s doubles table tennis.India has bagged 106 medals – 28 gold, 34 silver and 44 bronze – and the country is fourth in the standings. The contingent is chasing the all-time best haul of 108 medals at the Asian Para Games, achieved in Hangzhou in 2023.