Asian Para Games: Manish Narwal Wins Silver; Secures LA 2028 Paralympics Quota

Two-time Paralympic medallist Manish Narwal won silver in the men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 event at the Asian Para Games on Tuesday, securing a quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

Narwal scored 233.7 points to finish second behind South Korea’s Jeongdu Jo, who claimed gold with a Games-record score of 241.3. Another Indian, Rudransh Khandelwal, finished seventh in the eight-shooter final with 127.3 points.

Khandelwal topped Narwal in qualification, finishing second with 571-21x, while Narwal placed fifth with 570-15x. Both advanced to the final. Nihal Singh finished 12th with 560-9x and missed out.

Narwal previously won silver in the men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 event at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. At Tokyo 2020, he became the first Indian male shooter to win Paralympic gold, claiming the mixed SH1 50m pistol title.

The SH1 classification covers pistol shooters with upper- and/or lower-limb impairments.

In the women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 event, Sumedha Pathak topped qualification with 561-18x, while Shrishti Arora qualified fifth with 560-8x.

Both advanced to the final. Paris 2024 Paralympic bronze medallist Rubina Francis missed qualification after finishing 10th with 558-16x.

India opened its gold-medal account on Monday when Mona Agarwal won the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 title with an Asian Para Games record of 250.0 points.

Two-time Paralympic champion Avani Lekhara secured silver with 249.6, giving India its first one-two finish at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.

India entered the competition after its strongest-ever Asian Para Games campaign in Hangzhou in 2023. The country won a record 111 medals, including 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze, to finish fifth overall.

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