Indian sprinter Soumya clinched the gold medal while her compatriot Radha Venkatesh secured silver in the women’s 1500m T12/T13 final at the Asian Para Games 2026, giving the country a double podium finish in para athletics on Monday. Making her debut at the continental event, Soumya clocked a personal best of 5:12.39 seconds to win the title in the combined T12 and T13 category, earning 621 points. Radha finished second with a timing of 5:30.90 seconds, accumulating 421 points to claim the silver medal.
However, Manish lost out on the bronze medal on countback, as Shakiyev had lifted the weight earlier. India also had two competitors in the men’s 59kg para powerlifting final, where Manish Kumar narrowly missed out on a medal after finishing fourth. Manish recorded a best lift of 181kg, matching the weight lifted by bronze medallist Stanislav Shakiyev of Kazakhstan. The other Indian in the event, Paramjeet Kumar, finished seventh with a best lift of 167kg.
However, the event was held as a non-medal competition on that occasion due to the limited number of participants. The result was particularly significant for Radha, who had finished first in the same event at the 2022 Asian Para Games with a timing of 5:19.35.
With Soumya’s gold and Radha’s silver, India continued its strong showing at the Games, taking its medal tally to 11, including four gold, five silver and two bronze medals, to stand fourth in the standings, at the time of writing. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
