Continental sport returns to Hangzhou as Asian Para Games begins Sunday

Coway's Kang Hee-joon, left, intercepts Mugunghwa's Han Hee-seok's ball at a game of the 2023 KWBL Wheelchair Basketball League in October. [YONHAP]

The fourth-ever Asian Para Games is set to officially begin in Hangzhou, China on Sunday with an opening ceremony to mark the start of the week-long 22-sport event.

Thousands of athletes are up for medals in popular team events like wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball — and a host of individual competitions such as archery, shooting and taekwondo.

South Korea sent a national delegation of 345 athletes and officials to this year's Para Asiad and has entries in 21 events.

The Asian Para Games follows the close of the Hangzhou Asian Games earlier this month, where South Korea finished third, coming behind China and Japan, with 190 total medals and 42 golds. Both the Asian Games and Asian Para Games were postponed from their original dates last year due to Covid-19.

There are fewer sports at the Para Games, but some of them are new to the schedule compared to the Asiad. Meet boccia, a precision ball game similar to bocce played by throwing leather balls as close as possible to the target; goalball, a ball-in-net game designed for visually impaired athletes who play in teams of three; and lawn bowls, a precision game played with a curved ball on a bowling green, a rectangular grass patch.

Expect a wider age-range on the court, field or table. South Korean Go player Lim Yeon-sig, is 66, and the median age of the 12-man Korean wheelchair basketball team is 34.

A few of the competitions are already underway. The schedules for para badminton, boccia, lawn bowls and wheelchair basketball began ahead of Sunday’s opening ceremony.

A total of 44 national delegations are sending athletes to this year’s Para Games. North Korea withdrew from the Games earlier this week after the Asian Paralympic Committee said it would comply with the rule that its flag cannot be flown at any major sporting events as North Korea is non-compliant with anti-doping regulations according to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

South Korea is so far the second-most successful national team in Asian Para Games history, coming behind China, whose athletes have taken home the most gold and total medals since the inaugural event in 2010, in Guangzhou, China.

South Korea has so far won 456 medals across three previous years — 152 gold, 148 silver and 156 bronze.

It won the most gold medals at the Incheon Para Games in 2014 — 71 out of 209 total. The last Para Asiad was held in 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia, where South Korea won 103 total medals to finish second behind China and ahead of Iran.

The next Asian Games and Para Games will be held in two Japanese cities, Aichi and Nagoya, in 2026.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]