The women’s hockey team’s perseverance earned it a long-awaited gold as well as Olympic qualification, while boxers, archers and wrestler Sujeet Kalkal also exceeded expectations as India surged into the Asian Games top-five with a brilliant six-gold haul on the penultimate day of competitions on Friday. India are now at the sole fifth position with 76 medals, including 16 gold, 25 silver and 35 bronze. The country has more medals than fourth-placed Uzbekistan (65) but lags in the gold count by four.
Ankitat, Kirti and Kumkum defeat defending champions South Korea 5-3 (54-54, 56-56, 55-51, 54-54) to win gold in women’s team recurve archery. (Picture Credit: AP)
Lovlina Borgohain defeated China’s Ziyi Bao 5-0 to win gold in women’s 75kg boxing event at Asian Games 2026. (Picture Credit: AP)
Parveen Hooda eked out a narrow 3-2 split-decision win over Paris Olympic bronze-medallist Chen Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei to win gold in women’s 65kg boxing at Asian Games 2026. (Picture Credit: AP)
Ankush Panghal became the first Indian male boxer since Amit Panghal in 2018 to win an Asian Games gold medal on Friday. He won his 80kg final with scoreline of 4-0. (Picture Credit: AP)
Sujeet Kalkal won gold medal in men’s 65kg category. He defeated an Olympic champion en route to the title and erasing a massive 2-9 deficit in the final. (Picture Credit: PTI)
India ended 44-year wait for a gold in women’s hockey by defeating defending champions China 1-0 in the final and also secure a direct qualification to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. (Picture Credit: PTI)
Kumkum and Dhiraj Bommadevara combined for a silver medal in the mixed recurve team event, with the Indian duo going down 3-5 (34-38, 35-37, 37-36, 37-37) to China in the final. (Picture Credit: X/@WeAreTeamIndia)
India men’s recurve combination of Bommadevara, Sanjay Bhoge and Neeraj Chauhan settled for a silver following a 1-5 loss (56-56, 50-57, 54-56) to Korea. (Picture Credit: PTI)
Nethra Kumanan clinched the bronze medal in the women’s dinghy event of the Asian Games sailing competition. The 29-year-old logged 14 points in all (7 in final and 7 from qualification races) to be placed third behind gold-winner Sophia Montgomery (5) of Thailand and silver-medallist Jania Ang (13) of Singapore. (Picture Credit: X/@MohanMOdisha)
The Indian team went down fighting 0-2 to hosts Japan in the men’s quadrant semifinals to settle for a bronze medal in the Sepaktakraw competition. India lost the last-four match 12-15, 13-15. (Picture Credit: X/@OlympicKhel)
China lead Asian Games 2026 medal tally with 316 medals which includes 162 gold. They are followed by Japan (240 medals).
