Nagoya: India signed off their badminton campaign at the Asian Para Games with three gold medals Friday, as Paris Paralympic champion Nitesh Kumar and debutant Naveen Sivakumar spearheaded the strong show, while Thulasimathi Murugesan capped a memorable day with a gold and two silver medals.
India finished with 16 medals, including three gold, five silver and eight bronze, at the continental showpiece.
Nitesh clinched the men’s singles SL3 gold with a 21-18, 21-16 win over compatriot and Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist Pramod Bhagat, before combining with Thulasimathi to claim silver in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 event.
The Indian pair lost 21-11, 19-21, 14-21 to Indonesia’s Leani Ratri Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani in the final.
“Last time I was close, I was leading 19-16 in the third set, and then I lost. So this time, winning it and again winning in two sets against Pramod is, of course, very special, and I think it’s one of the rarest of the rare things to see,” said Nitesh after his singles triumph.
Naveen then added the men’s singles SL4 gold, beating Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-17 in 36 minutes to claim the top prize in his debut Games.
“It was my first Asian Games, but I had met all my opponents in previous tournaments. So I prepared myself like, it was a normal tournament; I should not be in pressure,” Naveen said.
“My goal is to win every major tournament title. This is my first achievement … I want to achieve success in the World Championship and Olympics as well.”
Bhagat, who had won gold in the 2018 and 2022 editions, had to settle for silver.
“It doesn’t feel that good because I had won two consecutive gold medals at the Asian Games, and I was trying to win a third gold here. I had everything, but today some of my strokes went wrong and my judgment was slightly off,” he said.
Thulasimathi and Manasi Joshi provided the third gold of the day, beating China’s Yang Qiuxia and Xiao Zuxian 21-16, 21-13 in the women’s doubles SL3-SU5 final.
“We were communicating more and more. And we were able to coordinate during training also. We used to think, we need to stay on the court, it will be tiring,” said Thulasimathi.
“In the matches, it will be tiring. Three events in a day, so we’ll just focus on to stay on the court and play, play, train, train, that’s it,” she added
“We had to be aggressive, not giving easy point. China is a very tough team. I think we won with them one time. And the next two times, we lost with them in World Championships and Asian Championships.”
Mansi added, “Before the match we were very positive, we were into the zone. It was a long day for Tulasi, my idea was to not make a single mistake. She had to take extra load, she played exceptionally well.”
The 24-year-old Paris Paralympics silver medallist had earlier won silver in the women’s singles SU5, losing 18-21, 11-21 to Yang in the final. She then combined with Nitesh to take another silver in the mixed doubles.
India’s Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan also signed off with a silver after losing 12-21, 13-21 to China’s Li Fengmei in the women’s singles SH6 final.
Naveen had won gold at the Uganda Para Badminton International in 2022 and claimed silver at the 2026 BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Bahrain. He also won silver at the French Para Badminton International in June this year.
Bhagat, meanwhile, missed out on a third consecutive gold in the men’s singles SL3 category, having triumphed in the previous two editions.
In para badminton, SL3 is for players with significant lower-limb impairments who compete on a half court, while SL4 is for athletes with lower-limb impairments who have better walking and running balance.
SU5 is for players with upper-limb impairments, while SH6 is for athletes with short stature.
