Nagoya, Oct 21 Indian swimmer Ravi Budigina won a silver medal in the men’s 100m backstroke S13 event, while Himanshu Nandal clinched his second bronze and Rohit Kumar added another third-place finish at the Asian Para Games here Wednesday.
Ravi clocked 1:10.10 seconds to finish second in a four-swimmer field. Uzbekistan’s Egor Bolotov won gold in an Asian record time of 58.43 seconds, while Chinese Taipei’s Feng-Yuan Yeh took bronze in 1:12.05.
The S13 is for athletes with the least severe visual impairment among eligible competitors.
It is his second silver medal of the current edition, having finished second in the men’s 100m freestyle S13 event on Monday.
The 18-year-old Budigina, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, had won three gold and three silver medals at the 2025 Asian Youth Para Games in Dubai.
Nandal wins bronze in one event and misses in another
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Nandal, the 22-year-old from Rohtak, Haryana, clocked 1:20.72 seconds to finish third in the men’s 100m breaststroke S11 event.
China’s Yang Bozun won gold in a Games record time of 1:12.69, while Japan’s Keiichi Kimura took silver in 1:12.72.
The S11 classification is for swimmers with severe visual impairment, including those with very low visual acuity or no light perception.
Nandal had opened his medal account on Tuesday, clocking 5:10.91 to finish third in a four-swimmer field in the men’s 400m freestyle S11 event.
However, he missed out on a medal in the men’s 200m individual medley SM11 event, finishing fourth with a time of 2:39.63.
Bronze for Rohit
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Rohit secured bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB4 event with a time of 1:57.25, finishing behind Malaysia’s Muhammad Zulkafli Bin, who won gold in a Games record 1:41.33, and Kazakhstan’s Ali Turganbekov, who took silver in 1:44.26.
The SB4 classification is for breaststroke swimmers with physical impairments, including certain combinations of short stature and additional impairments, or moderate coordination problems throughout the body.
Born with complete visual impairment due to optic nerve failure, Nandal was inspired by his father, who played hockey at the national level. He moved to Delhi at the age of four and joined the National Association for the Blind, where he learnt Braille.
A political science graduate from Delhi University’s Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Nandal initially took up judo and won medals at the national level before switching to swimming in 2021.
In 2024, he became the first Indian blind swimmer to achieve the Minimum Qualification Standard for the Paris Paralympics.
(PTI News)
