Asian Para TT C'ships: Sonalben-Rajalakshmi win India's first-ever doubles medal

Sonalben Patel and Rajalakshmi Shankar Janardhanamurthy clinched India's first-ever doubles medal at the ITTF Asian Para Championships in Beijing, China, on Sunday.

The duo won the bronze medal in women's doubles Class WD5 after finishing third in their single round-robin group with 2 wins and 2 defeats.

This was Sonalben's second medal at the same event after winning a bronze medal in the women's singles class 3 category earlier this week.

The duo started the tournament with a 3-1 win over the fellow Indian pair of Ekta Bhyan and Ushabahen Ramjibhai Rathod, who finished 4th in the tournament.

However, they could not back that form and lost their next two matches in straight games against the South Korean and the Thai pairings.

But then, they returned to the winning form and toppled the Kazakhstan pairing of Alexendra Stepanova and Yakaterina Fedorenko in a must-win match to confirm their medal.

With this, the Indian contingent concluded the tournament with five bronze medals, which is also the largest number of medals India has ever won in a single edition.

List of Indian medalists at the 2025 ITTF Asian Para Championships

• Bronze - Sandeep Dangi - Men's Singles Class 1
• Bronze - Jehan Madan - Men's Singles Class 1
• Bronze - Sonalben Patel - Women's Singles Class 3
• Bronze - EKta Bhyan - Women's Singles Class 1
• Bronze - Sonalben-Rajalakshmi - Women's Doubles Class WD5