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Thulasimathi Murugesan, Parmod and the women's recurve doubles pair of Bhawna and Pooja won silver medals for India on Day 5 of the 2026 Asian Para Games on Friday.
Thulasimathi lost 18-21, 11-21 to China's Qiuxia Yang in the women's singles SU5 final, while Parmod retained his silver medal in the men's 1500m T46 event, clocking 4:09.65. In para archery, Bhawna and Pooja went down 0-6 to China in the women's recurve doubles gold medal match, losing 31-38, 30-35 and 29-39 across the three sets. The three silver medals took India's tally to 91, including 21 gold, 29 silver and 41 bronze. India were placed fourth in the standings, with China leading the table with 319 medals at the time of writing. Thulasimathi, born on April 11, 2002, in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, began athletics at the age of five before taking up badminton a couple of years later. She was born with a congenital deformity in her left hand, resulting in the loss of a thumb, and also has chronic ulnar neuritis and muscle atrophy. An accident further restricted movement in her left hand. Her father, D. Murugesan, dedicated five years to training her and introduced her to para-sports. Her career highlights include a silver medal in women's doubles at the 2024 World Championships and gold in women's doubles at the 2023 Fazza Dubai Para Badminton International. She also won medals at the 2022 Asian Para Games. Parmod, 26, repeated his silver-medal performance from the 2022 Hangzhou Games in the men's 1500m T46 event, finishing in 4:09.65. In the women's recurve doubles final, Bhawna and Pooja struggled to match China's accuracy. The Chinese pair averaged 9.33 points per arrow against India's 7.50 to secure victory in straight sets. India will have several more opportunities to add to their medal count as Day 5 action continues, with athletes competing in para badminton, para athletics, para swimming, para archery, para powerlifting, shooting para sport and other disciplines. Among the key events lined up are Naveen Sivakumar's men's singles SL4 final and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan's women's singles SH6 final in para badminton. Thulasimathi will return to the court alongside Nitesh Kumar for the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 final against Indonesia's Leani Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani. In para archery, Harvinder Singh and Bhawna Choudhary are scheduled to compete in the recurve mixed team semifinal against China's Zhao Lixue and Wang Xueqian, with a medal match to follow if they advance. India will also look to their leading para-athletes in the men's javelin finals, with Sumit Antil, Sandip Sargar and Mahendra Gurjar set to compete in the F42-F44/F61-F64 event. Pranav Soorma, Dharambir Nain and Amit Kumar Saroha will contest the men's club throw F51 final. (ANI)
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