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India won gold medals in the men’s and women’s kabaddi events, while Sawan Barwal bagged a historic silver medal for the country in the men’s marathon.
India men’s kabaddi team players pose for photo with gold medal after winning final against Iran. (Picture Credit: AP)
India’s Kabaddi players, both men and women, maintained their grip on the Asian Games gold, while a historic marathon silver by Sawan Barwal was the high point of the country’s erratic track-and-field campaign on Saturday with shooters enduring another mixed outing in Aichi-Nagoya.
A standout aspect of India’s overall performance on the day was squash players Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh advancing to the finals to stay in the hunt for gold as well as qualification spots in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The men’s hockey team advanced to the semifinals after a 2-0 win over Japan in its penultimate pool match.
The Indian athletics campaign was derailed to an extent by injuries to a couple of prominent medal hopefuls — hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and triple jumper Praveen Chittravel. Both of them could not compete after old niggles resurfaced just before competition.
Another mild disappointment was two-time defending champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor’s silver in men’s shot put with a season’s best throw of 20.64m which was nowhere close to his personal best of 21.77m.
Prachi bagged the women’s 400m bronze to ensure that a medal trickled in from the track as well. Indians did not finish inside top three in men’s 400m and women’s 1500m events.
India’s overall tally increased to 30 with four gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals.
The day was off to a brilliant start when Barwal ran a stunning race to hand India an unexpected silver, shattering his own national record in the process here.
The 28-year-old Armyman from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi clocked 2 hours, 11 minutes and 37 seconds to complete the distance of 42.195km and finish behind Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita (2:10:49). China’s Peiyou Feng was third with 2:12:13.
His path-breaking silver is the first marathon medal for India in the Asian Games after the bronze won by Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan in the 1982 edition in New Delhi.
Barwal is also the fourth Indian marathon runner to have ever won a medal in the Asian Games. Chhota Singh and Surat Singh Mathur had won a gold and bronze respectively in the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi.
Soon after, India’s kabaddi dominance was reaffirmed despite a tough challenge mounted by Iran in both the men’s and women’s finals. While the Indian men rallied to prevail 40-34, the women clinched it 37-34 after a few anxious moments.
It was the ninth overall gold for the men and fourth for women.
At the shooting range, the Indian trio of Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa Vinod and Ashi Chouksey won the silver medal in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions team event.
The Indian team aggregated 1763 to finish second on the podium. Tilottama and Visarsa also qualified for the individual finals but could not finish on the podium, ending fourth and fifth respectively.
Squash players eye gold
Indian squash players showed brilliant form with teen sensation Anahat stunning world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe 3-2 to reach the women’s singles final, and Abhay charging into the men’s gold medal round.
The 18-year-old Anahat, who is the reigning world junior champion, staged a remarkable comeback after being down 0-2 at one stage of the semifinal to register one of the biggest wins of her career.
The Indian won the duel 9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3, exacting sweet revenge for losing to the same player in another five games earlier this year.
Abhay then rolled past Pakistan’s Muhammad Irfan 3-0 (11-3, 12-10, 11-6) to enter the men’s singles final.
If the two go on to win the final, they would not just claim gold medals but also book themselves a ticket to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where squash will make its debut.
Earlier in the day, the duo of Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar settled for the bronze medal after suffering a heartbreaking 2-1 (11-10, 2-11, 11-10) loss to Hong Kong’s Tang Ming Hong and Lee Ka Yi after an intense three-gamer at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena.
Strong start by archers
Dhiraj Bommadevara and Chikitha Taniparthi led India’s strong start to the Asian Games archery competition, topping the men’s recurve and women’s compound individual qualification respectively.
The country also secured the top spot in the compound mixed team qualification.
Fresh from winning a historic World Cup Final, Dhiraj’s stunning 698-point effort in the morning not only set a new Asian Games qualification record but also helped India secure second place in the men’s recurve team and recurve mixed team seedings.
Chikitha, who topped the women’s compound qualification with 705 points, powered India to second place in the women’s compound team event, while the compound men’s team finished third, with Sahil Jadhav’s fifth-place individual finish leading the charge.
Mixed day for shuttlers
Young shuttler Unnati Hooda produced an impressive show, notching up two fine victories to storm into the women’s singles quarterfinals, but Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty were knocked out.
Unnati defeated Malaysia’s Ling Ching Wong 21-14, 20-22, 21-19 to progress to the third round. The 19-year-old from Haryana then recorded a stunning 21-19, 21-13 win over world No. 6 Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani to set up a quarterfinal clash with Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.
Women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand notched up a second successive win in a week over world no. 3 Mayu Matsumoto and Yuki Fukushima of Japan, registering a 24-22, 21-18 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
TT campaign ends
Manush Shah and Yashaswini Ghorpade suffered defeats in their respective men’s and women’s singles pre-quarterfinals to end India’s campaign at the Games.
Indian paddlers thus finished their Asian Games campaign with only one medal — the mixed doubles bronze clinched by Manush and Diya Chitale on Friday.
India could not make much of a headway in esports, fencing or canoeing.
(With inputs from PTI)
Quick Answers
Ask News18The Indian men’s kabaddi team secured their ninth overall gold medal by defeating Iran 40-34, while the women’s team clinched their fourth gold by beating Iran 37-34.
Ask News18About the Author
Harshit Bisht is a sports journalist at CNN-News18, where he has been covering cricket, football, and major sporting events from around the world since July 1, 2024. Driven by a passion for storytelli…Read More
September 26, 2026, 19:07 IST
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