REIGNING overall champion  Indonesia started strongly on the opening day of the 12th ASEAN Para Games Cambodia 2023, after raking in 31 gold medals in six sports here, today.

The majority of Indonesia’s golden feats today were from swimming and athletics with 9 and 8 gold medals respectively while Para Chess and Judo both contributed 5 gold medals each, and powerlifting contributed three. The other gold comes from para badminton.

Following up from yesterday’s single gold win through Para-Badminton (WH) Standing, Indonesia sent out a clear warning to its rivals with convincing results after winning nine gold in swimming, with Jendi Pangabean contributing two golds through 100m Freestyle S9 and 400m S9.

Women Paralympic powerlifter Ni Nengah Widiasih, who lost the use of her legs due to polio, performed to expectation with a two gold feat in today’s proceedings.

Vietnam is now trailing with 18 gold medals with six coming from powerlifting star Le Van Cong clinching 2 gold in the 9kg category. 

Powerhouse Thailand are trailing closely with  15 gold, with the biggest haul coming from athletics (6) and swimming (7).

Hosts Cambodia added another gold through athletics, contributed by its women’s star athlete Vet Chanta women’s long jump T64 after yesterday’s golden win in the women’s team 3×3 wheelchair basketball.

Tomorrow (5 June), 67 medals up for grabs across five sports with  28 finals in athletics, 25 in swimming, 3 in judo, 10 in powerlifting and 1 in Table Tennis.

- Advertisement -