Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], October 18 (ANI): India will look to begin its medal campaign on a strong note at the 2026 Asian Para Games, with several prominent athletes set to lead the country's challenge across para athletics, para swimming, para powerlifting, para archery and para shooting.
Paralympic medallists Nishad Kumar and Ajeet Singh Yadav, along with world champions Rinku Hooda, will be among India's key contenders in para athletics as the country's athletes look to make an early impact at the continental multi-sport event. India will also have medal prospects in para swimming and para powerlifting, with athletes aiming to convert their preparations into podium finishes as competition gets underway.
In para archery, experienced campaigners Harvinder Singh and Sheetal Devi, along with Payal Nag, will begin their respective campaigns. The archers will look to deliver strong performances as India seeks success in the precision-based discipline. Meanwhile, India's para shooting campaign will feature Avani Lekhara, who will be among the athletes looking to add to the country's medal tally.
Here is the schedule of Indian athletes at the Asian Para Games 2026 on October 19, according to ESPN:
04:30 AM: Para Archery - Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi in Men's Recurve Individual, Doubles and Mixed Ranking Round
04:30 AM: Para Archery - Sheetal Devi and Payal Nag in Women's Compound Individual, Doubles and Mixed Ranking Round
04:30 AM: Para Archery - Swati Chaudhary in Women's W1 Individual and Mixed Ranking Round
05:30 AM: Para Badminton - Nitesh Kumar / Thulasimathi Murugesan vs Chen Pengfei / Huang Zixuan of China in Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group B
05:35 AM: Para Badminton - Ruthick Ragupathi / Manasi Joshi vs Khian Urbano / Kathleen Pedrosa of Philippines in Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group C
06:00 AM: Para Badminton - Prem Kumar Ale vs Muhammad Bin Ramli of Malaysia in Men's Singles WH1 Group A
06:15 AM: Para Badminton - Sudarsan Muthusamy vs Dimas Tri Aji of Indonesia in Men's Singles SH6 Group B
06:20 AM: Para Badminton - Krishna Nagar vs Lin Naili of China in Men's Singles SH6 Group C
06:30 AM: Para Shooting - Swaroop Unhalkar, Rakesh Nidagundi, Anandha Krishnan in Men's R1 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Qualification
06:30 AM: Para Shooting - Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal in Women's R2 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Qualification
06:35 AM: Para Table Tennis - Baby Sahana Ravi vs Altynay Yerzhankyzy of Kazakhstan in Women's Singles - Class 9 Group B
06:35 AM: Para Table Tennis - Sonalben Patel vs Chao Pei-hsi of Chinese Taipei in Women's Singles - Class 3 Group B
07:00 AM: Para Badminton - Sivarajan Solaimalai vs Faiq Zali of Brunei in Men's Singles SH6 Group D
07:05 AM: Para Badminton - Pramod Bhagat vs Lee Seunghu of South Korea in Men's Singles SL3 Group B
07:50 AM: Para Badminton - Sukant Kadam vs Sanjeewa Madduma of Sri Lanka in Men's Singles SL4 Group B
07:05 AM: Boccia - Anjali Devi vs Choi Ye Jin of South Korea in Women's Individual BC3 Pool A
07:05 AM: Boccia - Sachin Chamaria vs Kazuki Takahashi of Japan in Men's Individual BC3 Pool A
07:19 AM: Para Cycling - Arshad Shaikh in Men's C1-2 3000m Individual Pursuit Qualifying
07:30 AM: Para Table Tennis - Ekta Bhyan vs Eun Hee Kim of South Korea in Women's Singles - Class 1 Group A
07:32 AM: Para Swimming - Swatik Patil in Men's 200m Individual Medley SM9 Heats
07:45 AM: Para Badminton - Naveen Sivakumar vs Sunwoo Jeon of South Korea in Men's Singles SL4 Group A
07:45 AM: Para Badminton - Umesh Kumar vs Yi Yuzhe of China in Men's Singles SL3 Group C
08:50 AM: Para Table Tennis - Savita Ajjanakatti vs Asako Kurashimo of Japan in Women's Singles - Class 8 Group A
08:50 AM: Para Table Tennis - Jehan Madan vs Hyeonuk Kim of South Korea in Men's Singles - Class 1 Group A
08:50 AM: Para Table Tennis - Sandeep Dangi vs Rakan Al-Salmi of Saudi Arabia in Men's Singles - Class 1 Group A
08:50 AM: Para Table Tennis - Prachi Pandey vs Kanokporn Phathumchai of Thailand in Women's Singles - Class 6 Group A
09:00 AM: Blind Football - India vs Thailand in Men's Preliminary Round
09:15 AM: Para Archery - Bhawna Choudhary and Pooja Jatyan in Women's Recurve Individual, Doubles and Mixed Ranking Round
09:15 AM: Para Archery - Shyam Sundar Swami and Toman Kumar in Men's Compound Individual, Doubles and Mixed Ranking Round
09:15 AM: Para Archery - Amol Vinayak Breed and Adil Ansari in Men's W1 Individual and Mixed Ranking Round
09:15 AM: Para Badminton - Nitesh Kumar vs Dongjae Joo of South Korea in Men's Singles SL3 Group A
10:00 AM: Para Badminton - Ruthick Ragupathi vs Pricha Somsiri of Thailand in Men's Singles SU5 Group C
10:30 AM: Para Badminton - Rakesh Pandey vs Fang Jen-yu of Chinese Taipei in Men's Singles SU5 Group B
10:30 AM: Para Badminton - Abhijeet Sakhuja vs Prakash Adhikari of Nepal in Men's Singles SL4 Group F
10:45 AM: Para Badminton - Hubaida Abu / Prem Kumar Ale vs Daiki Kajiwara / Keita Nishimura of Japan in Men's Doubles WH1-WH2 Group A
11:15 AM: Para Badminton - Suryakant Yadav vs Chen Pengfei of China in Men's Singles SL4 Group C
11:15 AM: Para Badminton - Suhas Lalinakere vs Fredy Setiawan of Indonesia in Men's Singles SL4 Group E
11:30 AM: Para Badminton - Shanthiya Vishwanathan vs Yang Quixia of China in Women's Singles SU5 Group A
11:35 AM: Para Athletics - Suchitra Parida in Women's Javelin Throw F55/F56 Qualification
12:00 PM: Para Badminton - Sukant Kadam / Pramod Bhagat vs Suryo Nugroho / Muh Al Imran of Indonesia in Men's Doubles SL3-SU5 Group D
12:05 PM: Boccia - Sachin Chamaria vs Howon Jeong of South Korea in Men's Individual BC3 Pool A
12:30 PM: Para Badminton - Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan vs Apriliyana Sulistyawati of Indonesia in Women's Singles SH6 Group A
12:30 PM: Para Badminton - Thulasimathi Murugesan vs Wong Lai Ming of Hong Kong China in Women's Singles SU5 Group B
12:45 PM: Para Badminton - Manisha Ramdass vs Warining Rahayu of Indonesia in Women's Singles SU5 Group A
12:45 PM: Para Badminton - Mandeep Kaur vs Zuxian Xiao of China in Women's Singles SL3 Group C
01:00 PM: Para Badminton - Alphia James vs Amnouy Wetwithan of Thailand in Women's Singles WH2 Group B
01:00 PM: Para Powerlifting - Jaspreet Kaur in Women's 45kg Final (Medal Event)
01:30 PM: Para Badminton - Nitesh Kumar / Ruthick Ragupathi vs Seunghu Lee / Jeongsoo Lee of South Korea in Men's Doubles SL3 - SU5 Group C
01:30 PM: Para Badminton - Hardik Makkar vs Tay Wei Ming of Singapore in Men's Singles SU5 Group F
01:30 PM: Para Swimming - Gopichand Lingutla and Niranjan Mukundan in Men's 400m Freestyle S7 Final (Medal Event)
01:38 PM: Para Swimming - Vaishnavi Jagtap in Women's 400m Freestyle S8 Final (Medal Event)
01:40 PM: Para Athletics - Nishad Kumar in Men's Long Jump T47 Final (Medal Event)
01:45 PM: Para Badminton - Mythili Haris vs Mohammed Alameer of Iraq in Men's Singles WH2 Group E
02:00 PM: Para Badminton - Suryakant Yadav / Naveen Sivakumar vs Mohammad Ali Imam / Joytu Dhar of Bangladesh in Men's Doubles SU5 Group B
02:10 PM: Para Athletics - Deepthi Jevanji in Women's 400m T20 Round 1 Heats
02:15 PM: Para Badminton - Neeraj vs Siti Mat Lawani of Malaysia in Women's Singles SL3 Group C
02:30 PM: Para Badminton - Hubaida Abu / Pallavi Kaluvehalli vs Qu Zimo / Liu Yutong of China in Mixed Doubles WH1-WH2 Group B
02:30 PM: Para Powerlifting - Manish Kumar and Paramjeet Kumar in Men's 59kg Final (Medal Event)
02:47 PM: Para Swimming - Himanshu Nandal in Men's 100m Backstroke S11 Final (Medal Event)
02:57 PM: Para Swimming - Ravi Budigina in Men's 100m Freestyle S13 Final (Medal Event)
03:00 PM: Para Badminton - Krishna Nagar / Sivarajan Solaimalai vs Dimas Tri Aji / Subhan of Indonesia in Men's Doubles SH6 Group Stage
03:07 PM: Para Athletics - Ravanni Valasanaini in Women's 200m T11 Round 1 Heats
03:35 PM: Para Athletics - Ajeet Singh Yadav and Rinku Hooda in Men's Javelin Throw F46 Final (Medal Event)
03:55 PM: Para Athletics - Radha Venkatesh and Soumya in Women's 1500m T12/T13 Final (Medal Event)
04:03 PM: Para Athletics - Rakshita Raju and Ravanni Valasanaini in Women's 1500m T11 Final (Medal Event)
04:30 PM: Para Athletics - Pranav Desai in Men's 200m T64 Final (Medal Event)
04:37 PM: Para Athletics - Anjanaben Bumbadiya and Jayanti Behera in Women's 200m T47 Round 1 Heats
04:46 PM: Para Swimming - Kapil Kumar and Ajay Bhosale in Men's 100m Freestyle S10 Final (Medal Event)
TBD: Para Badminton - Pallavi Kaluvehalli / Alphia James vs Amnouy Wetwithan / Onanong Phraikeo of Thailand in Women's Doubles WH1-WH2 Group B
TBD: Para Badminton - Mandeep Kaur / Shanthiya Vishwanathan vs Wong Lai Ming / Zhang Tsz Huen of Hong Kong China in Women's Doubles SL3-SU5 Group B
TBD: Para Badminton - Thulasimathi Murugesan / Manasi Joshi vs Yang Quixia / Xiao Zuxian of China in Women's Doubles SL3-SU5 Group A
TBD: Para Judo - Kapil Parmar vs TBD in Men's J1 -70kg Quarterfinals
TBD: Para Judo - Kokila Kaushiklate vs TBD in Women's J2 -52kg Semifinals
TBD: Para Table Tennis - Shubham Wadhwa vs Feng Panfeng of China in Men's Singles - Class 3 Quarterfinal. (ANI)
Asian Para Games: Avani Lekhara, Harvinder Singh, Sheetal Devi begin campaigns on Day 1
