Asian Games 2026: Why India’s six-medal haul fails to improve rankings as China reaches 100 golds

L-R: Baranica Elangovan, Suruchi Singh, Kamaljeet and Gulveer Singh India enjoyed a busy Friday at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya with six medals, but the increase was not enough to improve its position in the overall medal standings as competition intensified at the top.India added one gold, two silver and three bronze medals to 23 – two gold, nine silver and 12 bronze. Still, India remained 12th in the medal table after Day 6.The reason is simple: positions in the medal table are primarily determined by the number of gold medals, and several countries ahead of India have continued to add gold at a faster rate.

Six medals, but India remains 12th

India’s gold came from shooting, where Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet jointly won the 10m air pistol mixed team title. Gulveer Singh won silver in the men’s 10,000m, while India’s men’s 50m 3-position rifle team also finished second.Manpreet Kaur won bronze in women’s shot put, while table tennis pair Manush Shah and Diya Chitale also secured bronze. Baranica Elangovanová’s historic bronze in the pole vault completed India’s haul of six medals.Asian Games full coverage | Medal Tally | ScheduleBaranica became India’s first ever Asian Games medalist in both men’s and women’s pole vault.Despite the haul, India trailed Kazakhstan, who had eight golds compared to India’s two. South Korea took third place with 13 golds, while Japan had 28.

China is closing in on 100 gold medals

At the top, China continued to pull away, achieving 98 gold medals along with 37 silver and 24 bronze, for a total of 159 medals.One of the biggest contributors to this dominance was swimming, where China finished with 30 golds from 41 events.Teenage sensation Zhang Zhanshuo starred in the haul, becoming the first swimmer to win seven gold medals at a single Asian Games. The 19-year-old won the 400m freestyle in 3:41.28 on Friday to add to her 200m, 800m and 1500m freestyle titles as well as three relay golds.His haul of seven golds surpassed the previous Asian Games swimming benchmark of six golds set by China’s Zhang Yufei at Hangzhou 2022 and Japan’s Rikako Ikee at Jakarta 2018.Only North Korean shooter So Gil San, with seven golds and a silver at the 1982 New Delhi Games, has won more medals at a single Asian Games.China’s dominance was not limited to swimming, the country continued to collect gold medals across disciplines. His 98 gold puts him just two short of the 100 gold mark, while Japan is a distant second with 28.

Asian Games 2026 medals after 6th day

RankingNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal19837241592Japan2843441153South Korea131734644Kazakhstan8814305Uzbekistan7159316Thailand768217Iran6117248Hongkong612Hong Kong1 Korea4431110Bahrain422811Malaysia4151012INDIA291223