SportsPosted at: Oct 3 2026 7:39PM


Asian Games: 85 medals underline India's progress, but conversion remains a challenge

BD Narayankar
Bengaluru, Oct 3 (UNI) India's 85-medal haul at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games has raised the country's medal floor to a level unseen before Hangzhou, but the 27 silver medals have also underlined a familiar challenge -- converting a growing pool of podium contenders into champions.
India finished fourth with 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals, ending the Games with a tally that was below the record 106 medals won at Hangzhou three years ago, but comfortably ahead of every previous edition.
India had won 65 medals in Guangzhou in 2010, 57 in Incheon in 2014 and 70 in Jakarta in 2018. The 85 medals in Aichi-Nagoya therefore represent a substantial rise from the country's pre-Hangzhou benchmark, even though the 2022 performance remains India's record Asian Games campaign.
The contrast is significant. India has clearly expanded the number of sports and athletes capable of winning medals, but the distribution of those medals -- particularly the 27 silvers -- suggests that reaching the decisive stages is not always translating into gold.
The strongest evidence of the changing landscape came from the women's campaign.
India won gold in women's cricket, hockey and kabaddi, while individual titles came from Lovlina Borgohain and Parveen Hooda in boxing, Kumkum Mohod in recurve archery, Pranavi Urs in golf and Neeru Dhanda in trap. Suruchi Phogat was also part of India's successful mixed 10m air pistol campaign.
The women's hockey triumph was particularly significant as India ended a 44-year wait for Asian Games gold dating back to the 1982 Delhi Games. The women's cricket and kabaddi teams also completed title-winning campaigns, underlining the growing depth of India's women's programmes.
Among the individual disciplines, archery provided one of the clearest examples of successful preparation translating into gold.
India collected nine archery medals, including five gold, two silver and two bronze. The country swept the men's, women's and mixed compound team titles, while 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod added a historic individual recurve gold. Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Jadhav also held their nerve in a shoot-off against South Korea to win mixed compound gold.
Boxing returned six medals, including three gold, with Lovlina, Parveen and Ankush Panghal winning their respective titles. Wrestling also produced six medals, including gold for Sujeet Kalkal and Aman Sehrawat. Sujeet's run included a victory over an Olympic champion, while Nitesh Siwach reached the Greco-Roman final, the first Indian to do so at the Asian Games in 64 years.
Athletics, however, presented a different picture.
India collected 24 medals -- its largest haul in any discipline -- but only one was gold, the women's 4x400m relay title. There were nine silver and 14 bronze medals.
Gulveer Singh emerged as one of the campaign's standout performers with silver in the 10,000m and 1500m and bronze in the 5000m. Sawan Barwal won marathon silver in 2:11:37, setting a national record and ending a 44-year wait for an Indian marathon medal.
Vithya Ramraj added a 400m hurdles bronze with a national record that erased P.T. Usha's 1984 mark, while Murali Sreeshankar won long jump silver despite an ankle injury. Defending champions Neeraj Chopra and Annu Rani did not compete, while Avinash Sable finished outside the podium after returning from injury.
Shooting provided perhaps the clearest statistical example of India's conversion problem. The shooters returned with 15 medals, but only three were gold compared with eight silver and four bronze.
Elavenil Valarivan missed out on gold after faltering with her final shot, while Tilottama Sen also failed to convert her opportunity into an individual medal. At the same time, Suruchi and Kamaljeet won mixed air pistol gold with an Asian record, while Neeru Dhanda won individual trap gold and then teamed up with Kynan Chenai for mixed trap gold.
India's team sports, meanwhile, provided a clean sweep of several high-profile targets.
The women's cricket team dominated Sri Lanka in the final, posting 216/3 before Deepti Sharma's 3/6 helped bowl them out for 69. The men's team retained its title with a 19-run victory over Pakistan, powered by a decisive contribution from Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma.
Hockey produced another double. The women's team defeated China 1-0 to end its long wait for gold, while the men retained their title with a 5-1 victory over Malaysia after overcoming Pakistan in the semifinal.
Kabaddi also delivered two gold medals, with the women's team beating Iran 37-34 in the final and the men's side successfully defending its title.
But the picture was less encouraging in several other Olympic sports.
Tennis finished without a medal for the first time since 1986. Both Indian men's doubles pairs lost their quarterfinals in deciding tie-breaks, while Sumit Nagal exited in the last eight.
Badminton produced only one bronze. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost in the opening round, although there were encouraging performances from P.V. Sindhu, Unnati Hooda, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and mixed doubles pair Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila.
Squash returned five medals -- two silver and three bronze -- but no gold, while table tennis produced one bronze through Diya Chitale and Manush Shah in mixed doubles.
Rowing endured one of its poorest Asian Games campaigns in 24 years, returning just one bronze through Satnam Singh and Salman Khan in the men's pair.
India's remaining medals came from disciplines including sailing, wushu, weightlifting, kurash, soft tennis, sepaktakraw, mixed martial arts and rowing's double sculls. Manu Francis and Prince Noble won sailing silver, Mirabai Chanu added a weightlifting silver and Jay Meena created history by winning India's first Asian Games soft tennis medal.
Taken together, Aichi-Nagoya presents a picture of an Indian sporting system that is producing more medal contenders than it did a decade ago, but with considerable variation in its ability to close out competitions.
The 85 medals show that India's floor has risen. The 27 silvers show that there remains room to improve the final step from contender to champion. The performances of women, archery, boxing and wrestling demonstrate where sustained preparation is producing results, while athletics, shooting, tennis, badminton and rowing point to areas where India's growing depth has yet to consistently translate into gold.
UNI BDN
Tags: #Asian Games: 85 medals underline India's progress# but conversion remains a challenge
More News

Shai Hope's 162 powers WI to five-wicket win n series finale

03 Oct 2026 | 11:19 PM

New Chandigarh, Oct 3 (UNI) Shai Hope produced a sensational unbeaten 162 off 143 balls as West Indies chased down India’s target of 352 with five wickets in hand in the third and final ODI at the PCA International Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.

see more..

Zheng advances into China Open third round as Kalinskaya withdraws

03 Oct 2026 | 10:57 PM

Beijing, Oct 3 (UNI) China's Zheng Qinwen advanced to the third round of the China Open on Saturday after Russia's Anna Kalinskaya retired while trailing 3-0 in the deciding set.
Playing in front of a packed Diamond Court, Zheng earned the first break in the eighth game of the opening set, but Kalinskaya immediately broke back. Neither player could gain another advantage before Kalinskaya took the tiebreak to win the set 7-6 (4).

see more..

Teenage athletes take center stage at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

03 Oct 2026 | 10:53 PM

Nagoya (Japan), Oct 3 (UNI) Records have tumbled and new stars have emerged at the 2026 Asian Games, where a generation of young athletes has made its mark across sports ranging from swimming and athletics to skateboarding and eSports. .

see more..

Asian Games: China claims first men's football medal in 28 years

03 Oct 2026 | 10:46 PM

Nagoya (Japan), Oct 3 (UNI) China took the men's football bronze medal at the 2026 Asian Games on Saturday, beating Uzbekistan 4-3 on penalties after the two sides drew 2-2 in regular time.

see more..

India go down 0-4 to Brazil, but not without some fight

03 Oct 2026 | 10:44 PM

By Sirshendu Panth
Kolkata, Oct 3 (UNI) India showed fleeting moments of brilliance and enterprise, particularly in the opening minutes, but ultimately fell 0-4 to Brazil's class in a lively FIFA international friendly at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan here on Saturday night.

see more..