SportsPosted at: Sep 20 2026 6:15PM


Asian Games Day 1: Elavenil double silver, Shafali ton headline India's start

Tridib Baparnash
New Delhi, Sep 20 (UNI) Elavenil Valarivan's double silver, Shafali Verma's maiden T20I century and dominant wins for men's and women's hockey teams highlighted a strong opening day for the Indian contingent at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday, while Suchika Tariyal assured the country of a historic medal in Mixed Martial Arts.

China lead the points table with 20 medals, including 11 golds, 6 silver and 3 bronze followed by hosts Japan with 19 (6 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze) and South Korea at third with a total of 13 medals, including 3 gold, 3 silver and 7 bronze. At the end of Day 1, India found themselves at 6th with a couple of silver medals.

India collected its first medal of the Games from the shooters after Sonam Uttam Maskar, Elavenil and Vidarsa Vinod won silver in the women's 10m air rifle team event. Elavenil then returned to the range to claim another silver in the individual event.

The Indian trio finished second with 1898.0 points, behind China, who set a qualification world record of 1904.2. Japan took bronze with 1897.1, just 0.9 points behind India.

Elavenil later finished second in the individual final with 252.4 points. Japan's Hinata Taichi won gold with a Games record 253.0, while South Korea's Ban Hyojin took bronze. Sonam finished sixth.

Haryana's Suchika Tariyal assured India of a historic MMA medal after defeating Mongolia's Altanchimeg Baigalmaa in the women's traditional 60kg semifinal. Baigalmaa stepped up her attack in the second round, but Suchika defended well, reversed the exchanges and kept her opponent grounded late in the bout to seal her place in the final.
Shafali Verma smashed her maiden T20I century as defending champions India stormed into the women's cricket final with a 114-run win over Bangladesh in the second semifinal. Shafali remained unbeaten on 100 off 49 balls, hitting nine sixes, as India posted 195/4 before bowling Bangladesh out for 81.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will now face Sri Lanka in Tuesday's gold-medal clash. Sri Lanka had earlier beaten Pakistan by eight wickets, chasing down 178/2 in 17.5 overs after Chamari Athapaththu smashed an unbeaten 83 off 50 balls, including six sixes.
India stormed into the quarterfinals of the women's team event with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan in their Round of 16 clash. PV Sindhu led the way with a 21-7, 21-9 win, while Unnati Kashyap and Tanvi Sharma also registered straight-game victories as India completed a clean sweep without dropping a game.

India will next face hosts Japan on Tuesday, with a win securing a medal in the event.
India's women's table tennis team staged a superb comeback to beat Singapore 3-2 in their Group F match at the Asian Games. After trailing 1-2, Sreeja Akula levelled the tie with a 3-1 win over Jian Zeng before Yashaswini Ghorpade defeated Loy Ming 3-2 in the decider. Earlier, India had opened their campaign with a 3-0 win over Indonesia.

The men's team, however, suffered a 0-3 loss to Iran after Manush Shah, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai all lost their respective matches. Earlier, the men's team started their campaign
with an identical 3-0 win over Indonesia.
Hockey: Men, women begin with big wins. India's women's team began its campaign with a 19-0 thrashing of Uzbekistan, with Deepika scoring nine goals, including five from penalty corners. Ishika also completed a hat-trick.
Later, the men's team followed it up with a 13-1 win over Indonesia. Dilpreet Singh scored four goals, while Shilanand Lakra and Sukhjeet Singh scored twice each. Harmanpreet Singh, Rajinder Singh, Mandeep Singh, Jugraj Singh and Abhishek were also on the scoresheet.

The Asian Games hockey champions earn a direct qualification spot for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Elsewhere in swimming, Rishabh Das finished sixth in the men's 100m backstroke final in 54.77 seconds. China's Jiayu Xu won gold in a Games-record 51.98 seconds, with Japan's Hidekazu Takehara taking silver and South Korea's Juho Lee winning bronze.

In Teqball, Quimcy D'Souza narrowly missed out on two bronze medals on the sport's Asian Games debut. She lost the women's singles bronze-medal match to Japan's world No. 7 Yuina Sakamoto 0-2 (11-12, 11-12). Just five minutes later, she and Mohamed Anas Beg went down 0-2 (9-12, 6-12) to Vietnam's Hoang Minh Tan Nguyen and Gia Ngih Trinh in the mixed doubles bronze-medal match.

In Wushu, Aparna lost 0-2 to Iran's Sogand Sinkaeichetan in the women's 52kg Sanda Round of 16, while Vikrant Baliyan was beaten by Iran's Soheil Mousavi in the men's 75kg Sanda Round of 16.
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