Asian Para Games: World stars aim to stamp dominance with home heroes in focus

Para athletics will be the largest sport contested at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games with 40 out of  the 44 participant National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) sending at least one Para athletics athlete to the regional event. A total of 656 athletes are set to compete at the Huanglong Sports Centre Stadium during six days.

China topped the medal table at the recent World Championships held in Paris, winning 45 medals including 16 gold. Five other Asian nations featured in the top 20 places on the overall medal table, so the competition in Hangzhou is sure to be fierce with a high level of competition.

While Uzbekistan finished in the eighth place with six gold – the only other Asian nation in the top 10 in Paris, alongside China – other countries to top the podium at the Worlds included Thailand (five gold), Iran (four gold), Japan (four gold) and India (three gold). 

China also finished on top of the Para athletics medal table at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with 51 medals including 27 gold, as they did in the last Asian Para Games five years ago, where the East Asian nation were on the top with 104 medals (56 gold).

In Hangzhou, there will be plenty of stars among the 76 Chinese athletes competing in 72 Para athletics events and keen to put on an incredible show in front of their home fans. 

Among the host nation's heroes are Zou Lijuan (women’s discus, shot put and javelin throw F34), Zhou Zhaoqian (women’s 100m T54), Liu Cuiqing (women’s 200m and 400m T11), Mi Na (women’s discus F38) and Liu Li (men’s shot put, club throw F32).

Tokyo heroes return

Thailand will rely on their wheelchair racers for the top honours with Tokyo 2020 heroes Pongsakorn Paeyo and Athiwat Paeng-nuea competing in the T53 and T54 100m, 400m and 800m races. 

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan will be hoping to for medals from their long jumpers including Doniyor Saliev (men's long jump T12) and Asila Mirzayorova (women's long jump T11), who broke world and championships record en route to their gold medals at the Paris 2023 World Championships in July. 

In javelin events, India will rest their hopes on Paralympic champion Sumit Antil to take the gold in the men’s F64 event as well as defending champion in the F44 event, Sandeep Chaudhary, and world champion Ajeet Singh and Sunder Singh Gurjar (men’s javelin F46).

In women’s sprints, China should dominate the races with their multiple Paralympic medallist Xia Zhou (T35), Yiting Shi (T36), Xiaoyan Wen (T37) set to scorch the tracks in Hangzhou.

Hangzhou 2022 will see the return of athletes who made history in the last edition in Indonesia 2018. It is the case of Timor-Leste's Teofilo Freitas who took his country's first-ever gold medal in the Asian Para Games in the men's 400m T37 and then took a second gold in the men's 1500m T37-38. 

Eighteen nations took at least one gold medal in Para athletics at Indonesia 2018. It was the case of Pakistan with Haider Ali, the gold medallist in the men's discus F37 who three years later took Pakistan's first-ever Paralympic gold medal in the same event at the Tokyo Games.

The records

The record for most gold medals in Para athletics at a single Asian Para Games is five, by China's Liu Cuiqing (in 2010) and Wang Hao (in 2018).

Another Chinese star, Mi Na, is the only athlete to have won gold in shot put and discus events at each of the three previous Asian Para Games.

Thailand's Saichon Konjen is tied with China's Zhou Hongzhuan on a record 11 medals in athletics at the Asian Para Games. He won most of his medals in the men's 100m T54 event: silver in 2010, gold in 2014 and bronze in 2018.

Abdul Latif Romly from Malaysia has won gold in the men's long jump (T20) at the last two Asian Para Games and at the Paralympic Games in 2016 and 2021. He could become the first athlete to win three gold medals in any long jump event at the Asian Para Games, in Hangzhou.

Uzbekistan's Khusniddin Norbekov can become the first man to claim four medals in shot put events at the Asian Para Games.

Iran (187) can reach 200 total medals in Para athletics in Hangzhou. Only hosts China (359) has won more medals in the sport.

Para Athletics events kick off on Monday (23 October) and conclude on Saturday (28 October) at the Huanglong Sports Centre Stadium. More information about the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games can be found here.