Asian Games 2026 Day 1: India open medal account with two shooting silvers as hockey, cricket and MMA shine
Vidarsa Vinod, Sonam Maskar and Elavenil Valarivan pose after winning silver medals. (PTI Photo) NEW DELHI: India opened its medal account at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday with two silver medals, both in the women’s 10m air rifle event, as Elavenil Valarivan proved to be an outstanding performer on a day that also saw medal hauls, victories in cricket and hockey and strong starts in badminton and table tennis.Valarivan first combined with Sonam Uttam Maskar and Games debutant Vidarsa Vinod to win silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event before adding an individual silver later in the day.The 27-year-old’s individual medal was particularly significant after missing the podium in her previous two appearances at the Asian Games. She shot 252.4 in the final to finish 0.6 points behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who won gold with an Asian Games record 253.0. Ban Hyojin of South Korea won the bronze with 230.4.It was a day of success and near misses for Valarivan. She led for most of the final before three free kicks near the end allowed Taichi to turn the game around.India’s two silvers in shooting was an encouraging start to the discipline that produced a record 22 medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Suchika Tariyal (ANI Photo)
Suchika secures historic MMA medal
While shooting gave India its first medals, Suchika Tariyal secured another podium finish.The 36-year-old defeated Mongolia’s Altanchimeg Baigalmaa 2-0 in the traditional 60kg MMA quarter-finals, advancing to the semi-finals and securing at least a bronze medal for India.The result takes on significance as MMA makes its debut at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. Tariyal, who previously competed in judo, switched to MMA in 2024 and won gold at the first two MMA-SFI National Championships.She also won bronze at the third and fourth Asian Mixed Martial Arts Championships earlier this year.
Shafali Verma (PTI Photo)
Shafali century takes India to cricket final
Indian women cricketers moved one step closer to defending their Asian Games title with a 114-run win over Bangladesh in the semi-finals.Shafali Verma was the star, smashing her maiden T20I century in just 49 balls as India posted 195/4 after electing to bat. Smriti Mandhana contributed 37 while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur scored 40 off 33 balls.The Indian bowlers then bowled out Bangladesh for just 81 in 15.4 overs, with Nandani Sharma and Deepti Sharma claiming three wickets each.The win secured India’s place in Tuesday’s final, where they will face Sri Lanka in a repeat of the previous edition’s gold clash. Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in the second semi-final.
India’s goal rush in hockey
The Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams have started their campaigns strongly, producing a combined 32 goals in their opening pool matches.The women started with a stunning 19-0 win over Uzbekistan, with Deepika Sehrawat scoring a remarkable eight goals.The men followed that up with a 13-1 demolition of Indonesia. Dilpreet Singh led the scoring with four goals as India dominated virtually the entire contest.The two wins provided early evidence of India’s ambitions in hockey competitions and gave both teams a strong start to their Asian Games campaigns.
Deepika Sehrawat (Image credit: Hockey India)
The shuttles are off to a winning start
India swept Kazakhstan 3-0 in the women’s badminton tournament with PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda and Tanvi Sharma winning their singles matches.Sindhu opened with a straightforward win before Hooda and Tanvi completed the sweep. India did not lose a single match in the play-off and advanced to the quarter-finals where they will face hosts Japan.The result provided a strong start for the team with a mix of experience and youth, with Sindhu leading the charge along with Hooda and Tanvi.
Table tennis: women defend, men suffer failure
Indian table tennis teams experienced contrasting fortunes on Day 1.Both the women’s and men’s teams began their campaigns with identical 3-0 victories over Indonesia in their respective Group F openers.The women then produced one of the remarkable comebacks of the day, recovering from a 1-2 deficit to beat Singapore 3-2. Yashaswini Ghorpade won the decisive fifth game against Loy Ming while Sreeja Akula had earlier leveled the match at 2-2.However, the men suffered a setback in their second group match, losing 0-3 to Iran. Manush Shah, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai lost their matches.Both the Indian teams will face Pakistan next.
India’s Quimcy Joaquim Dsouza (AP photo)
Hearts for Quimcy in teqball
India’s Quimcy D’Souza came agonizingly close to winning a historic teqball medal but ended up missing the podium after losing two bronze medal matches within five minutes of each other.The 24-year-old pushed Japan’s world number seven Yuina Sakamoto to the limit in the women’s singles bronze before losing 11-12, 11-12.Barely five minutes later, she returned to the arena alongside Mohamed Anas Beg for the bronze mixed doubles match. The Indian pair went 0-2 down against Vietnam’s Hoang Minh Tan Nguyen and Gia Ngih Trinh, losing 9-12, 6-12.
Das finishes sixth, the other swimmers missing the final
Rishabh Das finished sixth in the men’s 100m breaststroke final with a time of 54.77 seconds. China’s Jiayu Xu won gold with a Games record of 51.98, while Japan’s Hidekazu Takehara and South Korea’s Juho Lee won silver and bronze respectively.Earlier, Benediction Beniston and Akash Mani failed to advance from the heats of the men’s 100m freestyle after finishing 12th and 23rd respectively.
Wushu produces mixed results
Suraj Singh Mayanglambam finished 11th in the men’s changquan final with 9.683 points after competing in a field of 21 athletes.India also suffered two round 16 exits in Sanda. Aparna lost 0-2 to Iran’s Sogand Sinkaeichetan in the women’s 52kg category, while Vikrant Baliyan lost 0-2 to Iran’s Soheil Mousavi in the men’s 75kg category.There has been yet another disappointment in MMA after Varun Sanyal was declared medically unfit to compete following an incident during a sauna session at his cruise ship accommodation.
A medal start with more opportunities ahead
At the end of the first day, India had two medals confirmed – both silver – through Valarivan and the women’s 10m air rifle team. Suchika Tariyal secured another medal in MMA, while the women’s cricket team secured a place in the gold medal match.The day also saw emphatic hockey victories, a clean sheet in women’s badminton and a comeback victory in table tennis, although the men’s rowers and some individual competitors suffered setbacks.So for India, the opening day saw a mix of medals, near misses and promising starts – with several opportunities ahead as the Aichi-Nagoya Games gather pace.