SportsPosted at: Sep 26 2026 10:09PM


India complete kabaddi golden double, end 44-year marathon medal wait

Aichi-Nagoya, Sept 26 (UNI) India completed a golden double in kabaddi and ended a 44-year wait for a marathon medal as the country produced its biggest single-day haul of the Asian Games here on Saturday, winning seven medals across kabaddi, athletics, shooting and squash.
The Indian women retained their Asian Games kabaddi title with a thrilling 37-34 victory over Iran before the men followed with a 40-34 win over the same opponents, successfully defending their crown and completing a memorable golden sweep.
The twin triumphs accounted for India's two gold medals of the day, while the seven-medal haul comprised two gold, three silver and two bronze.
The day's other major landmark came from Sawan Barwal, who won silver in the men's marathon to end India's 44-year wait for a medal in the event, dating back to the 1982 Asian Games.
Barwal's podium finish was also India's first medal in the Asian Games marathon outside home soil.
Tajinderpal Singh Toor added a silver in the men's shot put with a best effort of 20.64m, extending his Asian Games medal collection to three after golds at the previous two editions.
Prachi Choudhary completed India's athletics medal haul with bronze in the women's 400m, clocking 53.21 seconds.
Shooting contributed another silver, with Ashi Chouksey, Tilottama Sen and Vidarsa K Vinod finishing runners-up in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions team event.
Squash produced both a medal and two major breakthroughs.
Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar secured bronze in mixed doubles after losing their semi-final to Hong Kong, China.
The medal extended Chinappa's Asian Games record to six podium finishes.
More significantly, Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh both reached the singles finals, assuring India of two more medals.
Anahat produced one of the day's most dramatic comebacks, recovering from two games down to defeat Japan's world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe 3-2 (9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3).
The Indian teenager saved match points in the third game before winning three successive games to complete the turnaround.
Abhay then stormed into the men's singles final with a 3-0 (11-3, 12-10, 11-6) victory over Pakistan's Muhammad Irfan.
Both Indians are now one win away from Asian Games gold.
Badminton also provided significant gains, with P V Sindhu, Unnati Hooda and the Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand pair progressing to the quarter-finals.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu defeated Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki 21-9, 21-13 to enter the last eight, where she will face Olympic champion Chen Yufei of China.
Unnati, playing her second match of the day, defeated world No. 6 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia 21-19, 21-13.
Treesa and Gayatri defeated the world No. 3 Japanese pair of Fukushima Yuki and Matsumoto Mayu 24-22, 21-18, repeating their earlier victory over the same combination in the women's team event.
Ayush Shetty, however, bowed out in the men's singles pre-quarter-finals after losing 16-21, 21-19, 17-21 to two-time world medallist Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
In hockey, defending champions India defeated hosts Japan 2-0 to qualify for the men's semi-finals.
Abhishek and Harmanpreet Singh were on target for India, who will face Bangladesh in their final Pool A match.
Athletics provided several promising developments for Sunday's programme.
Tejaswin Shankar ended the opening day of the decathlon at the top with 4,338 points, 88 ahead of China's Chen Xinghua.
Shankar moved into the lead after producing a 2.18m effort in the high jump, earning 973 points.
National record-holder Animesh Kujur qualified for the men's 200m final after finishing second in his semi-final heat in 20.81 seconds.
Harita Bhadra and Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland also advanced to the women's 200m final, while Yoonus Shah and Gulveer Singh entered the men's 1500m final.
Parul Chaudhary finished fourth in the women's 1500m final with a personal best 4:09.46, while Pooja was sixth in 4:16.78.
Karthik Unnikrishnan finished sixth in the men's triple jump with a best effort of 16.02m, while compatriot Praveen Chithravel withdrew from the final after suffering an injury.
Vishal TK placed fifth in the men's 400m final in 45.48 seconds.
Jyothi Yarraji, meanwhile, did not start the women's 100m hurdles heats after experiencing discomfort during her warm-up. The Athletics Federation of India said the coaching team decided to withdraw her as a precaution following her return from an almost year-long injury lay-off.
In boxing, Priya Ghanghas advanced to the women's 60kg quarter-finals with a 5-0 win over South Korea's Oh Yeon-ji, moving within one victory of a medal.
Kapil Pokhariya also reached the men's 90kg quarter-finals with a 5-0 victory over Iran's Sam Estaki.
Jadumani Singh exited the men's 55kg competition after losing to Olympic silver medallist Carlo Paalam of the Philippines in a split decision.
In shooting, Tilottama Sen finished fourth and Vidarsa Vinod fifth in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions individual final.
In equestrian, Hriday Chheda and Jai Sud qualified for the individual dressage final after finishing inside the top 15 across the two qualifying rounds.
India's archers also made strong progress, with Sahil Jadhav and Chikitha Taniparthi topping the compound mixed team qualification, while Dhiraj Bommadevara and Kumkum Mohod finished second in the recurve mixed team qualification.
India's table tennis campaign ended after Manush Shah lost 0-4 to former world No. 1 Lin Shidong of China in the men's singles pre-quarter-finals.
The country's canoe sprint campaign also ended without a medal, with Raju Rawat and L Neha Devi finishing eighth in the mixed canoe double 500m final.
The men's sabre and women's foil teams exited in the fencing quarter-finals, while India's Pokémon Unite team suffered its second group-stage defeat, losing 0-2 to Japan.
India's most productive day of Aichi-Nagoya so far brought a kabaddi golden double, a historic marathon medal, three more medals and two squash finalists, with further medals already assured and several contenders still in action.
UNI BDN
Tags: #India complete kabaddi golden double# end 44-year marathon medal wait
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