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As many as seven para-athletes from Odisha will represent India in the fourth Asian Para Games 2022 to be held in Hangzhou from October 22 till October 28, 2023.
The athletes from Odisha that will represent the country are Pramod Bhagat (para-badminton), Jayanti Behera (para-athletics), Soundarya Kumar Pradhan (visually-impaired chess), Rakhal Kumar Sethi, V Ramesh Rao, Prafulla Kumar Khandayatray and Pujaswini Nayak (wheelchair fencing).
Bolstered by their performance in the last edition of the mega event, the Odia para-athletes are aiming for a much-improved show in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.
“In the last edition of the Asian Para Games, Pramod, Jayanti, and Soundarya had brought laurels for the country by winning medals. In the upcoming edition, we are confident of a much better show from the Odia para-athletes. Apart from these three para-athletes, we are also expecting a couple of more medals from the wheelchair fencing event as well,” said a senior member of the Odisha Para Sports Association.
A total of 311 para-athletes will represent India in the upcoming edition of the Asian Para Games. In the 2018 edition of the mega event, 211 para-athletes from the country participated and India won a total of 72 medals.
“We are confident that our para-athletes will put up a much better show this time and India will win more than 100 medals in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games,” said the president of the Paralympic Committee of India, Deepa Malik.
Hangzhou will be the second Chinese city to host the Asian Para Games, after Guangzhou in 2010.
Originally scheduled to take place from October 9-15, 2022, the mega event was postponed to 2023 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
