Asian Para Games 2026: Five Indian Athletes to Watch

India will begin its 2026 Asian Para Games campaign in Aichi-Nagoya on October 16 with a 168-member contingent spread across 11 disciplines. The team includes 112 men and 56 women, with several established Paralympic and world-level performers set to lead India’s medal hopes.

The scale of the event underlines the challenge ahead: athletes from 45 nations will contest 492 medal events across 18 sports. India arrives after its best-ever Asian Para Games showing at Hangzhou 2023, where it finished fifth and collected 111 medals, including 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze.

That Hangzhou campaign also featured three world records. Sumit Antil and Sundar Singh Gurjar rewrote the men’s javelin F64 and F46 marks respectively, while India’s men’s compound archery team set a world record of 158 out of 160. The 2026 squad will aim to build on that benchmark, with a group of proven performers carrying considerable expectations.

India’s established medal contenders

Sumit Antil heads to Aichi-Nagoya following another record-breaking season in men’s javelin throw F64. The 27-year-old threw 74.82m at the Indian Open International Para Athletics Championships in Bengaluru in May, improving the world record he had previously set at 73.29m during the 2022 Asian Para Games.

Antil won the title at that edition and is a two-time Paralympic gold medallist, having taken gold at the 2020 and 2024 Paralympic Games. He has also won three successive World Para Athletics Championships titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025. His record and recent form make him one of India’s central athletes to follow.

Pramod Bhagat will lead the Indian contingent as a flag bearer. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic gold medallist has won six Asian Para Games medals over the 2014, 2018 and 2022 editions: two gold and four bronze. His Asian Para Games gold medals came in men’s singles SL3 at Jakarta 2018 and men’s doubles SL3-SL4 at Hangzhou 2022.

Bhagat will compete in three events in Aichi-Nagoya. He plays in the SL3 category, for athletes with lower-limb impairments that affect movement on court, with matches played on a half-court. His experience at the Games and multiple world championship titles give India a significant presence in para badminton.

Avani Lekhara is another key Indian medal contender. The two-time Paralympic champion made history at Tokyo 2020 by winning women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 gold and 50m rifle 3 positions bronze. She became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal and the first Indian woman to win multiple medals at one edition of the Games.

In 2025, Lekhara won gold in women’s 10m air rifle standing at the Para Shooting World Cup in Al Ain and added bronze at the World Championships. Competing in the SH1 classification, she brings major-event pedigree into the Asian Para Games.

Flag bearers and archery strength

Bhavina Patel will join Bhagat as a flag bearer and brings a strong Asian Para Games record in para table tennis. She has won a silver and a bronze across the 2018 and 2022 editions, while her wider record includes women’s singles silver at Tokyo 2020 and gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Patel has also won gold at an ITTF World Para Elite event and silver in women’s singles Class 4-5 at an ITTF World Para Future event. Those results helped her reach the top of the ITTF World Para rankings, and she enters Aichi-Nagoya pursuing a third consecutive Asian Para Games medal.

In para archery, Sheetal Devi arrives as the world No. 1 and the world’s first female armless archer, shooting with her legs and feet. She won women’s compound individual gold at Hangzhou 2022 and took mixed team bronze with Rakesh Kumar.

Since then, Sheetal has added a mixed team compound bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, an individual world title at the 2025 World Archery Para Championships, and the 2025 World Archery Para Archer of the Year award. In September 2026, she won her first individual gold on the World Archery Para Series circuit in Ahmedabad and set a mixed team compound world record of 1,400 out of 1,440 alongside Rakesh Kumar. Her return gives India a high-profile defending champion in Aichi-Nagoya.