SportsPosted at: Sep 29 2026 7:39PM


India’s sporting improvement on show as records fall at Aichi-Nagoya

BD Narayankar
Aichi-Nagoya, Sept 29 (UNI) There are medals that glitter, and then there are medals that tell a story.
India has won plenty of the first kind at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. But the more interesting story of these Games lies in the second kind — the medals accompanied by a record, a personal best, a historic first or a drought finally brought to an end.
Consider Vithya Ramraj.
When the Indian crossed the finish line in the women's 400m hurdles in 54.75 seconds for bronze, she did more than secure a place on the podium. She finally erased a record that had acquired almost the status of sporting scripture — P.T. Usha's 55.42 seconds, set 42 years ago. Ramraj had equalled Usha's mark at Hangzhou in 2023; in Nagoya, she went one better and rewrote it.
That, in miniature, is the story of India's Games.
Sawan Barwal's marathon silver came with another number that has a stubborn ring to it — 44 years. His 2:11:37 performance gave India its first Asian Games marathon medal since 1982.
There is something particularly satisfying about the marathon producing such a result. It is not an event that forgives impatience. Barwal's journey from the track to the marathon has been relatively recent, yet he has already pushed the national standard forward and now owns an Asian Games medal.
Then there is Gulveer Singh, who appears determined to collect medals almost as methodically as a distance runner collects laps.
He won silver in the 10,000m, followed it with another silver in the 1500m after running a personal best of 3:36.72, and on Tuesday added bronze in the 5000m.
Three medals, three distances and a rather persuasive statement that the Indian runner who once looked apprehensive among international competitors is no longer overawed by them. His journey from the bronze at Hangzhou to three medals in Aichi-Nagoya is perhaps as good an illustration as any of what experience can do.
The javelin produced another pleasing little twist.
With Neeraj Chopra absent, there was always the danger that the event would be reduced to a question of who could fill the large shoes he has left behind. Instead, Yashvir Singh threw a personal best of 85.72m for silver and Rohit Yadav added bronze with 84.35m.
The message was less about replacing one man and more about two others announcing themselves.
Murali Sreeshankar, meanwhile, did what experienced champions often do: he competed with what he had. His 8.07m secured a second successive Asian Games silver in the long jump, despite an injury during the competition.
And then came 19-year-old Pooja Singh.
Her 1.84m clearance brought bronze in the women's high jump and ended India's 24-year wait for a medal in the event. It was not her personal best, but the Games are not examinations in which marks are awarded for clearing the bar by a particular margin. On Tuesday, 1.84m was enough to put India back on the podium.
There is a similar story in shooting, where Neeru Dhanda supplied one of the most remarkable chapters of the Games.
Dhanda won the women's individual trap gold, becoming the first Indian woman to achieve the feat at the Asian Games. Her winning score of 28 also bettered the previous Asian record.
What makes these performances important is not simply that India has added another line to its medal tally.
It is that the lines between established stars and emerging athletes are becoming less obvious.
The country's athletics campaign has produced medals from runners, jumpers, throwers and relay teams. Shooting has produced performances across rifle, pistol and trap. Team sports have continued to contribute, while boxing and other disciplines have added to the spread.
India's medal tally stood at 51 medals with five gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze by Tuesday.
The tally itself will eventually find its place in the record books. Numbers do that rather efficiently.
But numbers such as 42, 44 and 24 tell another story.
Forty-two years was the length of time Usha's 400m hurdles record survived.
Forty-four years separated India's marathon medals.
Twenty-four years separated India's women's high-jump podium appearances.
And in between came athletes who were not content merely to inherit the past. They wanted to alter it.
That may be the more useful way of reading India's Aichi-Nagoya campaign.
There will naturally be comparisons with the 107-medal haul at Hangzhou. There will be arguments about gold medals, rankings and whether India has met expectations. Those are the easy numbers.
The harder, and perhaps more revealing, question is whether Indian athletes are improving.
On the evidence of Aichi-Nagoya, there are encouraging answers.
Personal bests have become medals. National records have fallen. Events once considered barren have produced podium finishes. Young athletes have begun knocking on doors that were previously guarded by more celebrated names.
Sport, like journalism, has a weakness for round numbers. Forty-two years makes a good headline. Forty-four makes an even better one.
But behind those numbers are years of training, disappointments, injuries, near misses and athletes who kept returning to the starting line.
At Aichi-Nagoya, some of them finally found the finish line waiting for them with a medal.
And some, more importantly, left their own mark on it.
UNI BDN
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