Deepthi Jeevanji Sets Record Asian Para Gold

On Tuesday in Nagoya, Deepthi Jeevanji did what champions are supposed to do and made a hard thing look calm. She set a new Games record when she participated in the women’s 400m T20 event at the Asian Para Games 2026 in 56.36 seconds. She beat Japan’s Niina Kanno by over two seconds, who was second with a time of 58.92. The third position was taken by Japan’s Akane Kato in 1:00.26. The Deepthi Jeevanji gold medal was India’s fifth of the Games and the first of its second day.

A Defended Title and a Record to Match

Her victory here indicates that she successfully defended the title that she had previously claimed in the last Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, where she ran 56.69, which was not only a new Asian record but also a Games record. Her new 400m T20 Games record here on Tuesday shaved around three-tenths of a second from that mark.  She won the gold medal in the World Championship held in Kobe, Japan, in May 2024, and achieved a world record time of 55.07 seconds. In the same year, she won the bronze medal in the Paris Paralympics with a time of 55.82 seconds, thus winning India’s 16th medal in the tournament. T20 is the classification for intellectually impaired athletes.

The Girl Her Village Underestimated

None of this was a given, because Deepthi, born on 27 September 2003 in Kalleda, a village in Warangal district, Telangana, arrived with features that caused a stir among her neighbours, and reports describe her being mocked by fellow villagers as a child. Her talent was noticed all the same, and she found backing from the Gopichand-Mytrah Foundation, linked to the badminton great Pullela Gopichand, as she trained. It is hard to hear that history and not feel that every record she breaks is also a reply to the people who once looked at her and saw only what they thought was missing.

Paris gave her a place on the Paralympic podium, though it also reminded her how thin the margins are in a 400m, since Turkey’s Aysel Onder, who took silver that night, broke Deepthi’s world record the night before and the gap between the three medallists was less than a second. That is why a clear two-second margin in Nagoya matters: it suggests an athlete running her own race rather than chasing someone else’s.

Deepthi is 23, and the Games run until 24 October, so there may well be more to come, but she has already given us a story worth keeping. A young woman who was mocked so early answered on the track, in front of a whole continent, and set a Games record while doing it. At She Inspires Magazine, we will be following closely where it takes her next.