Tokyo, August 12: The flame-lighting events for the Tokyo Paralympic torch relay began across Japan on Thursday in the lead up to the world's biggest sporting event for athletes with disabilities, despite the relay being scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic, reported Kyodo News.

A series of events related to the torch relay were held in an effort to boost momentum toward the Paralympics, which will takes place between Aug. 24 and Sept. 5, and mark the transition from the just-concluded Olympics.

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India will be fielding its largest ever contingent this year with 54 Paralympic athletes participating across nine sporting disciplines. Some of the Indian athletes in action will be Sumit Antil and Sandeep Chaudhary in javelin; Manish Narwal (10m air pistol), Singhraj (10m air pistol), and Avani Lekhara (10m air rifle, 50m air rifle) in shooting and Mariyappan Thangavelu in high jump.Mariyappan will also be the flag bearer for the Indian team.

Badminton will make its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games, which will feature as many as five shuttlers in the men's category -- Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar, Tarun Dhillon, Suhas Yathiraj, and Krishna Nagar -- alongside the women's doubles pairing of Parul Parmar and Palak Kohli.

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In the 2016 Rio Olympics, 19 Indian para-athletes featured in the showpiece event across five sports clinching two Gold, one Silver, and one Bronze medal.

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