PM applauds Indian archers for Para Asian Archery Championship

Indian archers performed brilliantly in the Asian Para Archery Championship 2023 and won a total of nine medals with four gold, four silver and one bronze medal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Indian Para Archery team for its best ever performance at the Para Asian Archery Championship 2023 in Bangkok.

Performance of Indians in Para Asian Archery Championship:

• Rakesh Kumar (Jammu Kashmir) of India, ranked fifth in the world, scored a hat-trick of gold medals in the championship held on 22 November 2023 in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. Rakesh and Suraj Singh won the gold medal in the team event in the men's compound category by defeating Chinese Taipei Pung Hung Wu and Chih Chiang Chang by 147.144.
• Rakesh along with Sheetal Devi (Jammu Kashmir) also won gold in the mixed team category by defeating Indonesia's T Addi Ayudia Farelli and Ken S by 154.149.
• In the women's compound open team, Sheetal and Jyoti won gold by defeating Korea's Jin Young Jeong and Na Mi Choi by 148.137.
• India won silver medals in women's recurve team final, men's recurve doubles, men's recurve W1 doubles.
• Sarita secured a bronze in the individual women's compound category.
• India topped the championship with nine medals, while South Korea stood second with a total of five medals, winning three gold, one silver and one bronze.
• India's total medals at the Asian Para Archery Championships 2023 are given in the following table:-

• Gold Medal:

  • Compound Men's Open Team: Rakesh Kumar and Suraj Singh
  • Compound Women's Open Team: Jyoti Baliyan and Sheetal Devi
  • Compound Open Mixed Team: Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi
  • Compound Men’s Open: Rakesh Kumar

• Silver Medal:

  • Recurve Women's Open Team: Pooja Jatyan and Pooja Khanna
  • Recurve men's open team: Harvinder Singh and Vivek Chikara
  • Men's W1 Team: Adil Mohammad Nazir Ansari and Naveen Dalal
  • Compound Women Open: Sheetal Devi

• Bronze Medal:

  • Compound Women Open: Sarita

Indian athletes performed best in the 4th Asian Para Games:

• Indian athletes won a total of 111 medals including 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze at their recently concluded Asian Para Games 2023 in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China (Hangzhou from 22 to 28 October 2023). India has had its best performance so far in this competition.
• India finished fifth in the competition behind hosts China, Iran, Japan and Republic of Korea.
• China topped the competition by winning a total of 521 medals including 214 gold.

Important facts about Indian para athletes:

• Devendra Jhajharia is the first para-athlete to receive the Padma Bhushan, the country's third highest civilian award. Jhajharia has won several Paralympic medals, including his first gold at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, his second gold at the 2016 Rio Games and a silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
• Para-shooter Avani Lekhara was also awarded the Padma Shri award in the sports category. Avani Lekhara is the first Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals in the same sport, as well as the first Indian woman to earn a Paralympic gold.
• Vandana Katariya was honored with the Padmashree award. Vandana became the first Indian woman to achieve a hat-trick at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.