Asian Games 2026: India Breaches 50-Mark in Medal Tally, Enter Top-10

Nagoya: Undaunted by a heavy downpour and chilly conditions, Neeru Dhanda gave India its first ever women's trap gold in the Asian Games before the women's 4x400m relay team added another one in the evening as the country breached the 50 mark in the mega-event's medal tally to enter the top-10 here on Tuesday.

Dhanda's vision was at times disrupted by incessant rain but the focus was unwavering as she smashed the Asian record to claim the top finish, which was also India's first individual shooting gold in the ongoing Games with a score of 28 in the finals.

In the evening, the women's relay team of Kiran, Prachi Choudhary, M R Poovamma and Vithya Ramraj claimed the 4x400 women's relay top honours with a timing of 3:29.69sec.

Of these, the 36-year-old Poovamma was a member of the Indian teams that won gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Asiads as well. Vithya Ramraj had earlier bettered the legendary P T Usha's over four-decade-old national record to claim bronze in the 400m hurdles competition.

As a result, the country's standing in the overall tally improved to 10th with 52 medals (6 gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze) so far.

There was a jinx broken in the boxing arena as well with Ankush Panghal ensuring that India had a male boxing finalist after eight years by advancing to the summit clash of the 80kg category.

It was overall a mixed day in the track and field competitions but India managed to end it on a high thanks women's relay gold. However, it was nowhere close to the high of six gold medals that the track and field campaign of the previous edition had yielded.

Nineteen-year-old high jumper Pooja Singh looked in control for a while but eventually came third with a 1.84m best effort, adding to the bronze tally.

The ever-reliable Gulveer Singh completed a treble at the Games, adding a 5000m bronze to the silver medals he won in the 10,000m and 1500m races.

Gulveer thus became only the second Indian man to win three track and field medals in a single Asiad after Lavy Pinto's gold medals in 100m, and 200m and silver in 4x100m relay during the inaugural 1951 Games.

Later, the mixed 4x100m relay team of Gurindervir Singh, Sneha Sathyanarayna, Animesh Kujur and Harita Bhadra took the bronze with a season's best timing of 41.06sec.

The men's 4x400 team of Vishal TK, Dharamveer Choudhary, Jay Kumar and T Manu also ended the campaign with a bronze medal, failing to defend the gold won last time. They clocked 3:01.61sec in the race.

But the country drew a blank in the men's and women's 800m competitions.

The boxers have already surpassed their previous haul of four by ensuring six medals this time.

Apart from Ankush, Parveen Hooda too stormed into the final, securing her place in the 65kg gold-medal bout with a commanding victory even as Narender Berwal signed off with a bronze after losing in the +90kg semifinals.

Parveen defeated China's Li Shu 5-0 before Ankush produced a stirring comeback to out-punch reigning 75kg world champion Uzbekistan's Fazliddin Erkinboev 4-1.

Narender, however, went down 0-5 to reigning super-heavyweight world champion Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan in the last-four stage.

The bronze was Narender's second at the Asian Games after he also finished on the podium in Hangzhou in 2023.

The Indian men's volleyball team continued its winning run, eking out a hard-fought 3-2 win over Qatar to qualify for the quarterfinals. The Indian team bounced back from being two sets down to defeat Qatar 26-28, 25-27, 25-23, 25-20, 24-22 in a marathon Pool C match, which lasted two hours and 47 minutes.

All four quarterfinals will be played on Thursday.

India had earlier defeated Vietnam 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-20) and Hong Kong China 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-21) in their opening two matches respectively.

In the archery competition, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Neeraj Chauhan and Kumkum Mohod Anil progressed to the recurve quarterfinals with impressive wins. Chauhan stunned South Korea's 22-year-old Kim Je Deok, a three-time Olympic gold-medallist, 6-4 (30-28, 29-29, 29-30, 29-29, 29-27) in the men's individual 1/8 elimination round.

Bommadevara, on the other hand, outwitted Chinese Taipei's Cheng Hsiang-Hui 6-2 (29-27, 27-28, 30-28, 29-28) in the other pre-quarterfinal.

In women's recurve 1/8 elimination, Kumkum Mohod Anil thrashed Bangladesh's Saima Salah Uddin 6-0 (29-26, 28-26, 27-26) to make it to the last eight.

The Indian women's squash team blanked Iran 3-0 in its last group-stage match to progress to the quarterfinals. Starting the proceedings, Tanvi Khanna was declared the winner after her opponent Narges Soltani retired while trailing 5-11, 0-3 in the first singles.

Anahat Singh, who won a silver in the individual event, then saw off Fereshteh Eghtedari 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-7) to give India an unassailable 2-0 lead.

In the third singles, veteran Joshna Chinappa, who also won a bronze in the mixed doubles event, prevailed 3-0 (11-1, 11-3, 11-9) over Najmeh Boushehrizadeh to complete the 3-0 win.

India will face Singapore in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Indian tennis players Dhakshineswar Suresh and Sumit Nagal made winning starts in their men's singles campaigns and secured pre-quarterfinal slots.

Dhakshineswar got the better of Indonesia's Gunawan Trismuwantara 7-5 7-6(2) in his second round, while Nagal got past South Korea's Seongchan Hong 6-4 6-0 in his rain-interrupted match.

Among the disappointments was cyclists failing to come good in the men's and women's team sprint events and women's team pursuit competition, falling out of medal contention at the preliminary stage.