Hangzhou, Oct 28 (PTI) Indian para athletes created history on Saturday as they ended their Hangzhou Asian Para Games campaign with an unprecedented 111 medals, the biggest haul for the country in any major international multi-sport event.

With 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze in their kitty, the Indian para athletes won four medals more than the record tally of 107 won by the able-bodied athletes in the Asian Games held from September 23 to October 8.

India ended at fifth place in the medals tally, a remarkable achievement in itself, below China (521 medals: 214 gold, 167 silver, 140 bronze), Iran (131: 44, 46, 41), Japan (150: 42, 49, 59) and Korea (103: 30, 33, 40).

The first Para Asian Games was held in 2010 in Guangzhou, China, where India had finished 15th with 14 medals, including one gold. Four year later, India had finished ninth.

The only earlier instance of India crossing the 100-medal mark in a major international multi-sport event (Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games) was the 101 medals the country won during the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said the performance was the result of forward-looking policies and the government’s focus on the grassroots.

“This performance reflects the hard work of our athletes and the introduction of the right policies in sports under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Be it the Khelo India Scheme at the grassroots level or the Target Olympic Podium Scheme for elite athletes, the support extended through these schemes is indeed showing results now.” He added that the three-fold increase in the sports budget since 2014 had helped the ministry cater to the needs of the athletes better.

“The increase of sports budget by three times as compared to 2014 has also given us the ability to extend better support to all our athletes, be it in terms of coaches, training, foreign exposure, diet and infrastructure.” Paralympic Committee of India president Deepa Malik told

Source: PTI News