Asian Para Games: Mona Agarwal wins second gold, sets world record in 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 final

Indian para shooter Mona Agarwal clinched her second gold medal at the 2026 Asian Para Games, setting a world record in the women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 final on Friday.

Mona produced a record score of 357.5 to finish 3.8 points ahead of China's Cuiping Zhang, who claimed the silver medal. The Indian shooter had earlier won gold in the women's 10m air rifle standing SH1 event on the opening day of the Games.

Avani Lekhara, the other Indian competing in the final, narrowly missed out on a podium finish, finishing fourth. She had been among the top two after the prone position but lost ground in the standing series.

On the opening day, Mona and Avani had secured a one-two finish in the women's 10m air rifle standing SH1 event. Mona won gold with a score of 250, setting an Asian Para Games record and surpassing Avani's previous mark of 249.6 from the 2023 Hangzhou edition.

India's para athletes and shooters enjoyed a productive Day 5, with the country adding several medals across disciplines. In para badminton, Nitesh Kumar won gold in the men's singles SL3 final, while Pramod Bhagat won silver. Naveen Sivakumar also secured gold in the men's singles SL4 event after defeating Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan in the final.

In para archery, Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi won gold in the men's recurve doubles event.

Sandeep claimed gold in the men's 400m T64 final, with Ajay Kumar taking bronze, while Haney secured gold in the men's javelin throw F37/38 final.

India also collected silver medals through Thulasimathi Murugesan in women's singles SU5 (badminton), Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan in women's singles SH6 (badminton), Pooja Jatyan and Bhawna Choudhary in women's recurve doubles, Parmod Bijarnia in men's 1500m T46 and Nimisha Suresh in women's long jump T47. Jehan Madan and Shubham Wadhwa won bronze in the men's doubles (MD4) para table tennis.

India had a total of 103 medals, comprising 27 gold, 33 silver and 43 bronze, and were fourth in the standings at the time of writing, with China leading the table with 354 medals.

India are now targeting a tally beyond their previous best of 108 medals, achieved at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Para Games as competition continues in Aichi-Nagoya.