Summer Paralympics: Expectations high from Rio-bound Indian contingent

As the Paralympic-bound Indian contingent heads for the 2016 Summer Paralympics, slated to be held from September 7 and 18 in Brazil, the country has pinned high hopes on its athletes winning a lot of medals in the prestigious quadrennial event.

The Indian contingent has 18 athletes representing it who are expected to win a handful of medals, especially seeing the training, dedication and the hard work put in by the athletes.

Arhan Bagati, who was recently appointed 'Awareness and Impact Ambassador' by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), said, "Last year, our paralympic contingent was 10 and we won silver medal in the high jump event. World number one, two and three in high jump are Indians. So, we hope that our outcome will be very good."

"The training of the participants has been going very well. This year our Paralympic contingent is 18, and we are predicting four to five medals," he said at the farewell function held in New Delhi for the Rio Paralympics bound Indian contingent.

Rao Inderjit Singh, president, of the PCI, said it is an achievement in itself that 17 Indians are participating in the paralympics.

"Out of these 17, there are some who have the ability to even break world records. We are expecting many silver and gold medals and I am hopeful that we would be able to grab medals," Singh said.

Arjun awardee Deepa Malik, who is going for the shot put event in the F53 wheelchair category, expressed hope that she would be able bring laurels to the nation at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

"This time our training has been wonderful and we have worked very hard. We were given full freedom to design our training according to our disability. I am pretty sure that our performance would be much better than that of able body players," Malik said with a sense of pride and satisfaction in her eyes.

Ankur Dhama, who is going for the 1,500 meter race event, said that he will give his best at the prestigious games and would definitely try to win a medal for India.

"I will give my 100 percent," Dhama said.

While the largest-ever 10-member Indian contingent participated in four events in London Games, 18 members would represent the country in Rio Games.