Four medals. Three of them gold. India's para athletes delivered a statement haul at the Asian Para Games 2026 on Friday, October 23, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was among the first to mark the moment — saluting a squad that turned the badminton court and the archery range into arenas of national pride.

Fadnavis posted his congratulations on X, writing: 'Proud Moments for India at the Asian Para Games 2026! Heartiest congratulations to Naveen Sivakumar on clinching Gold in Men's Singles SL4 badminton, Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi on winning Gold in Para Recurve Men's Doubles archery, and Nitesh Kumar on securing Gold and Pramod Bhagat on winning Silver in Men's Singles SL3 badminton.' The post was accompanied by three images celebrating the athletes.

Badminton court delivers two golds and a silver

Naveen Sivakumar topped the podium in Men's Singles SL4 badminton — the category for athletes with lower-limb impairments who compete standing. In the same sport but a different classification, Nitesh Kumar went one better in Men's Singles SL3, adding a second gold, while his compatriot Pramod Bhagat claimed silver in the same event — a remarkable one-two for India on a single court.

Bhagat is no stranger to the global stage. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion has been among the most decorated names in Indian para badminton for years, and a silver at this level underlines the depth of competition the SL3 draw now commands. Nitesh Kumar, with prior international experience in the same category, converting that into continental gold is the kind of result that shapes careers.

Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi hit gold in the archery range

Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi combined to win Gold in Para Recurve Men's Doubles archery — a discipline that demands precision and partnership in equal measure. Harvinder, a well-known name in Indian para archery who has collected medals at Asian and international events before, brings proven pedigree to a pairing that delivered at the continent's biggest para stage.

A decade of building — and what comes next

India's trajectory in para sports has not been accidental. A record 19 medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics — across shooting, archery, badminton, athletics, and wrestling — signalled that the country's support structures for para athletes were beginning to pay off. Training programmes, national sports bodies, and growing public attention have all fed into a pipeline that is now producing multiple podium finishers at the same games.

The Asian Para Games, held every four years for athletes across Asia, is both a title in its own right and a key qualifying marker for the Paralympic cycle. With the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles on the horizon, performances like these will shape India's selections and raise the bar for the next generation. Today's gold medallists just made that bar a little harder to clear.