Asian Games 2026 Day 5: Seema, mixed relay team wins athletics medals; Roshibina Wushu bags silver

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday kicked off its athletics campaign at the 2026 Asian Games with two medals. The 4x400m mixed relay won silver while Seema won bronze in the women’s 10,000m. Seema’s medal was India’s first athletics medal at these Games.The relay team of TS Manu, MR Poovamma, Vishal TK and Vithya Ramraj clocked 3:14.46 to finish second behind Bahrain. Bahrain won gold in a Games record time of 3:12.87.

Seema ends India’s wait in women’s 10,000m

Twenty-five-year-old Seema won the bronze medal in the women’s 10,000m with a time of 32:50.05. Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won gold in 32:39.18, while Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka took silver in 32:41.54.Seema’s bronze was India’s first women’s 10,000m medal at the Asian Games since 2010.At the 2010 Asian Games, Preeja Sreedharan won gold and Kavita Raut bagged silver.

The mixed relay adds another medal

The 4x400m medley relay also continued India’s medal run.India won gold when the event was introduced at the 2018 Asian Games and won silver at the previous edition. Thursday’s result gave India its third medal in a row.The result was left unofficial for some time after the UAE lodged a protest. The UAE were later disqualified, making India’s silver medal official.India had earlier qualified for the final after finishing second in Heat 2.

Roshibina won her second silver at the Asian Games

India’s Roshibina Devi Naorem won her second consecutive Asian Games silver in wushu. In the final of the women’s sando up to 60 kg, she lost 0:2 to the Chinese Zhang Xiaoyu. Zhang won both rounds 5-0 and took the match 10-0 overall.Roshibina also won silver at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games and bronze at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. With three medals, she became the most successful Indian wushu player at the Asian Games.Roshibina first missed the selection after losing the exams. She was given a place in the team after original selection Divyanshi Choudhary was ruled out due to injury.

Anantjeet-Parinaaz won a historic mixed team bronze in skeet

Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Parinaaz Dhaliwal gave Indian skeet another reason to celebrate on Thursday as they blasted their way to a historic bronze in the mixed team event. It was India’s first ever Asian Games medal in mixed team skeet.The bronze ended a remarkable run of three medals for Indian skeet in just two days. Anantjeet, Bhavtegh Singh Gill and Mairaj Ahmed Khan won bronze in the men’s team on Wednesday, before Parinaaz, Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari Chauhan added another bronze in the women’s team later in the day.Twenty-four hours later, Anantjeet and Parinaaz were back in the firing range, this time teaming up to ensure India won medals in all three skeet events at the Asian Games.

The rowers are finally going to show off their medal

Indian rowers also ended the day with a bronze medal. Satnam Singh and Salman Khan won bronze in the men’s double sculls, India’s first medal at the Asian Games.The Indian pair remained second until the 1500m before dropping to third in the final 500m. They threw 6:13.25.China won gold while Uzbekistan won silver.

Asha Ilango misses out on bronze

Asha Ilango narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s triple jump. She finished fourth after posting a best jump of 13.83m, the same distance as China’s Yi Li.The Chinese athlete finished in front as her second best jump was better. Yi had the second best performance of 13.79m while Asha had 13.65m.Animesh, Gurindervir reach 100m semi-finalsAnimesh Kujur qualified for the men’s 100m semi-finals after finishing third in heat 1 of the 1st round. He clocked 10.36 seconds. Thailand’s Puripol Boonson won the heat in 9.95 seconds.National record holder Gurindervir Singh also reached the semi-finals after finishing second in Heat 4 with a time of 10.38 seconds. The top three from each of the six heats and the next six fastest runners advanced to the semi-finals, which will be held on Friday.

Kabaddi teams continue unbeaten

Both the Indian men’s and women’s kabaddi teams continued their winning runs. The men’s team defeated Chinese Taipei 37-21, while the women’s team defeated Japan 50-25 to reach the semi-finals and secure at least a bronze medal.India is the defending champion in both the events.

Anahat, Tanvi set up All India Squash quarter finals

India had a productive day in squash with Anahat Singh, Tanvi Khanna, Abhay Singh and Veer Chotrani reaching the singles quarterfinals. Anahat beat Singapore’s Wai Iynn Au Yeong 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-7) in 19 minutes.Tanvi beat Singapore’s Wai Yhann Au Yeong 3-1 (5-11, 11-4, 11-5, 13-11) in 39 minutes. The results set up an all-India singles quarter-final between Anahat and Tanvi.In the men’s singles, Abhay defeated Sri Lanka’s Ravinda Laksiri 3-0, while Veer defeated Malaysia’s Sanjay Jeeva 3-2 in a close contest. Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar also advanced to the mixed doubles quarterfinals.

Dilpreet’s hat-trick propels hockey to victory

Dilpreet Singh scored a hat-trick as India beat Korea 8-2 in the men’s hockey competition. It was India’s third win in a row and kept the team at the top of Group A. Dilpreet scored in the 10th, 26th and 32nd minutes. Abhishek scored twice while Shilanand Lakra, Harmanpreet Singh and Rajinder Singh also found the net.India had earlier beaten Indonesia 13-1 and Sri Lanka 16-1.

Boxing, gymnastics and fencing will disappoint

Parveen was the only Indian boxer to advance after reaching the quarter-finals of the women’s 65kg event on Thursday. Sakshi Chaudhary lost 2-3 to Alua Balkibek of Kazakhstan in the women’s 51kg pre-quarterfinals, while Sumit had to withdraw during her 70kg bout due to a knee injury.In gymnastics, Pranati Nayak finished sixth in the women’s vault final. She scored a 12.900 on both vaults and finished with a 13.100 after a 0.20 bonus.India’s fencing campaign also came to an end after CA Bhavani Devi and Shreya Gupta were eliminated in the women’s individual sabre. Bhavani reached the round of 16 after beating Mongolia’s Oulen Tugsjargan 15-8, but lost 5-15 to China’s Rao Xueyi in the pre-quarterfinals.