Dilip Gavit was an 400m T47 Asian Para Games champion of Hangzhou 2023, and a 100m T47 Commonwealth Games (CWG) champion of Glasgow 2026. And yet, a missed medal rankled through these years.
“The pain of that day remained in his mind,” Vaijnath Kale, Gavit’s coach, said.
On that day in Hangzhou, he was among the para sprinters at the start line of the 100m T47 race. As the starter prepared to fire his pistol, an apparent slight hand movement by the Indian invited straight disqualification. Gutted, questioned and criticised, Gavit waited three years to prove a point.
On Wednesday evening at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, he did just that by winning the 100m gold medal at the 2026 Asian Para Games.
“The pain has been released with this medal,” Kale told HT from Nagoya.
Gavit, who clocked 10.69secs to top the combined T46/T47 category, was joined by Mohammed Basil as a silver medallist at 10.72s. The sprinters from Maharashtra and Kerala repeated their 1-2 finish from the Glasgow CWG.
Athletics continued to do the heavy lifting for the contingent in Japan, delivering five gold medals on Wednesday that pushed India to fifth in the medals tally with 62 medals. Of the 14 gold medals so far, 13 have come from track and field.
“It has been an excellent performance so far, with more to come,” Satyanarayana, India’s para athletics head coach, said. “Last time we had 16 gold, and 53 medals in athletics. We are looking at 8-10 more gold medals here compared to that.”
Simran added to Gavit’s sprint gold, and to her own 200m victory by topping the women’s 100m T12 event with a Games record of 12.02s. Shot put produced two champions in Sachin Khilari and Ayush Verma, while Praveen Kumar defended the T64 high jump title.
Gavit also has the 400m T47 title to defend on Thursday, but the 100m gold meant more to the 23-year-old. He lost his right arm at age five after falling from a tree in his tribal village near Nashik. Gavit is primarily a 400m runner who also took up the 100m. Hangzhou was the first big test in that and when he returned with a foul against his name, it raised questions.
“Despite winning the 400m in Hangzhou, there was criticism directed at him and us. People wondered whether the move to also make him run 100m was right,” said Kale, a former national athlete turned coach whom Gavit calls his second father.
Gavit knew he had to answer those questions, and turned those murmurs into motivation for these Asian Games.
“He kept saying I have to win this gold somehow. He couldn’t be at peace until then,” said Kale. “Sometimes when you miss out on something, it motivates you even more. And this medal was the most important for him.”
Even more than the CWG gold, which he took with a Games record timing of 10.71s in July. Peaking twice in three months was a challenge for the sprinter and his coach. “The time was really short, and it was a tough job to plan to peak in both events,” said Kale.
While Gavit and Basil backed up their CWG gold-silver at the Para Asian Games, the men’s shot put F46 event had an all-Indian podium sweep. Sachin Khilari won with a Games record throw of 15.87m, followed by Mohd Yasser (silver, 15.06) and Parveen (bronze 14.94). High jump also had a 1-2 finish courtesy Praveen (gold with a Games record of 2.05m) and Banti (1.92). Ayush Verma secured another Indian gold in shot put, winning the F53 event with 8.16m and bettering the mark of Iran’s Alireza Hemami (8.09).
“Shot put has proven a very strong event for India. Our athletes have been good in throws traditionally, but Iran is also strong in sitting throw events,” said Satyanarayana.
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Archery, swimming pool in
Archery, swimming and powerlifting accounted for India’s growing tally. Sheetal Devi, the country’s armless archer, and Payal Nag, a quadruple amputee who looks up to Sheetal, combined for the doubles compound silver after losing to China’s XU Xueqing and Zhao Jing 150-141 in the final.
In the pool, visually impaired 18-year-old Ravi Budigina won his second medal of the Games, adding another silver in 100m backstroke S13 to the freestyle event in the same category. Himanshu Nandal took bronze in the 100m breaststroke SB11 final.
Kasthuri Rajamani, India’s 42-year-old para powerlifter, won silver in the women’s upto 67kg category with a best lift of 108kg.