Rio de Janeiro, Sept 6: With an aim to improve its medal tally, India has sent its largest ever contingent for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games which will kick off here on Wednesday (Sept 7).
India gear up for 2016 Paralympics
A total of 19 Indian athletes (16 male, 3 female) will feature in 10 disciplines at the Games which will be held September 7-18. India had also sent its largest ever Olympic contingent to Rio Olympics 2016 but won just two (1 silver, 1 bronze).
Among the Indian athletes, javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia, who became India's first Paralympic gold medallist in Athens 2004, will be taking part in his fourth edition and will hope to finish on the podium this time as well.
The 2016 Paralympics will see as many as 4,300 athletes competing for medals in 23 disciplines. (Cash awards for Rio Paralympic medallists announced)
India has so far won a total of eight medals at the Paralympic Games, including two gold, three silver and three bronze. Of these, one gold, three silver and and two bronze medals have come in athletics while swimming and powerlifting have yielded a gold and a bronze respectively.
Here is the full list of Indian Paralympians:
Men:
High jump:
Mariyappan Thangavelu, Varun Singh Bhati, Sharad Kumar, Rampal Chahar
Javelin:
Sundar Singh Gurjar, Devendra Jhajaria, Rinku, Narender Ranbir, Sandeep
Club throw:
Amit Kumar Saroha, Dharambir
Shooting:
Naresh Kumar Sharma
Swimming:
Suyash Narayan Jadhav
Powerlifting:
Basha Farman
Athletics:
Ankur Dhama (1,500m)
Javelin, Shotput:
Virender Dhanka
Women:
Archery:
Pooja
Shot put:
Deepa Malik
Discus throw:
Karamjyoti Dalal
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