Sports Ministry Clears 281 for Asian Para Games, With 168 Athletes in 11 of 18 Sports

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has approved a 281-member Indian contingent for the Asian Para Games, which run from 18 to 24 October 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The approval was reported on 14 October, and the contingent includes 168 athletes competing across 11 sports.

The Games bring together about 3,000 athletes from 45 National Paralympic Committees across 18 para sports, held across Aichi-Nagoya and neighbouring municipalities. Tribune puts India's squad at the Hangzhou Games at 303 athletes and The Bridge at 309, so the new athlete total is 135 lower on Tribune's figure and 141 lower on The Bridge's.

Where the 281 Places Go

The approved total is made up of 168 athletes, 98 team officials and supporting staff, and 15 contingent staff. Of the athletes, 112 are men and 56 are women. The 113 places for officials and contingent staff are part of the same total, so 281 is a team figure rather than an athlete count.

Athletics is the largest group, with 62 athletes. Tribune says para athletics was India's largest contingent at the Hangzhou Games, at 123 athletes, and that quota restrictions brought it down to 62.

Measured against the 303 athletes Tribune gives for Hangzhou (309 on The Bridge's figure), the 168 athletes now approved are 135 fewer (141 fewer on The Bridge's figure), a drop of a little under half.

Sports Missing From the Indian Team

Tribune says disciplines such as blind chess, para-rowing and para-canoeing, in which India fielded athletes last time, are absent from this edition. It gives two reasons for the smaller squad: the absence of those disciplines and strict quota restrictions set by the Organising Committee in many sports.

The Bridge reports that the ministry opted not to field teams in seven sports: taekwondo, goalball, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair rugby. Wheelchair rugby and goalball are both on the Games' programme, which has 18 para sports in total.

The sports India has entered appear in The Bridge's day-wise schedule: para badminton, para table tennis, blind football, para archery, shooting, swimming, judo, powerlifting, para athletics, boccia and para cycling. Boccia is listed from 17 October and para cycling from 19 October.

Named Athletes, Flag Bearers and First Listings

Pramod Bhagat, a para badminton player, and Bhavina Patel, a para table tennis player, will carry India's flag at the opening ceremony, Tribune reports. Bhavina Patel also appears in the 16 October table tennis listing.

Outlook names Sheetal Devi, Harvinder Singh and Toman Kumar, all in para archery. It describes Harvinder Singh as the Paris 2024 Paralympic gold medallist and calls Sheetal Devi a compound archer. Paralympic.org says she won three medals on her Asian Para Games debut, at the Hangzhou 2022 Games, which were held in 2023.

The Bridge's 16 October listing includes 31 Indian events. Abu Hubaida plays M. Jianpeng of China in a WH2 singles match at 5:30 am IST. Suhas Yathiraj's SL4 singles match against J. Dhar of Bangladesh is at 7:05 am, and Bhavina Patel plays A. Alrasheedi of Kuwait in Class 4-5 table tennis at 7:10 am.

Krishna Nagar's SH6 singles match against J. Lin of Chinese Taipei is at 12:30 pm IST. Manasi Joshi, Abhijeet Sakhuja and Pramod Bhagat are listed in para badminton, and Baby Sahana Ravi and Subham Wadhwa in para table tennis. The blind football entry names only the men's team, which plays South Korea at 9:00 am IST.

Schedule in IST: Start Date and Event Times

Tribune and paralympic.org give 18 to 24 October as the Games' dates. The Bridge's schedule runs from 16 to 24 October, with competition starting on 16 October and the opening ceremony on 18 October.

For 16 October, The Bridge gives IST start times from 5:30 am to 2:30 pm for the Indian events it lists, with several marked TBA. The sports that day are para badminton, para table tennis and blind football, and the Bridge's overview names Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium among the venues.

For 19 October it lists archery, shooting, swimming, judo and powerlifting, with the first archery ranking round at 4:30 am IST. The Bridge says medal events begin that day across para shooting, para athletics, para powerlifting and judo.

Para athletics runs from 1:30 pm to 6:30 pm IST on 19 October and from 5:30 am to 6:30 pm IST on 20 to 23 October, The Bridge reports. Its day-wise schedule lists quarterfinals and semifinals from 20 October, with finals and medal matches up to 24 October.

Outlook describes the medal events as spread across a seven-day programme.

The medals carry braille engraving and tactile notches, so athletes with vision impairments can tell gold, silver and bronze apart by touch.

Venues, Medals and the Opening Ceremony

The Bridge names Paloma Mizuho Stadium as the venue for the 18 October opening ceremony. Its other venues are Paloma Mizuho Sports Park for athletics, Aichi Budokan for judo, Nagoya City Trade and Industry Centre for powerlifting, Nippon Gaishi Hall for swimming and boccia, and Okazaki Central General Park for archery.

Paralympic.org says the events are spread across Aichi-Nagoya and neighbouring municipalities. For Japan, wheelchair rugby player Katsuya Hashimoto will carry the flag at the opening ceremony, with sprinter Moe Nakagawa joining him there.

The medals carry braille engraving and tactile notches, so athletes with vision impairments can tell gold, silver and bronze apart by touch. The medal cases are made from Japanese cypress.

The mascot is Uzumin, whose ears are inspired by the Shachihoko, a mythical guardian associated with Aichi-Nagoya. The motto is Imagine One Heart.

What Has Not Been Confirmed

The Bridge says there is no official broadcaster yet but expects the Games to be live on DD Sports. Outlook said broadcast and live-streaming details for India had not been confirmed as of 12 October.

Outlook also says the event-by-event schedule should be checked on the official website, and that the final list of Indian participants should be checked against official team announcements. Event times here are for selected events only and have not been checked against an official timetable.