Asian Games Day 7: Two kabaddi golds and marathon silver propel India into top 10

It was India’s most successful day at the Asian Games so far with two gold, three silver and two bronze medals. The kabaddi teams retained their crowns and Sawan Barwal made marathon history, but there were also missed medal opportunities and injury setbacks. The twins took India back into the top 10 in the medal standings, taking their tally to 30 medals.

ASIAN GAMES LIVE: UPDATE 26 SEPTEMBER | TABLE OF MEDALS

The squash contingent also had a memorable day with Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh reaching the women’s and men’s singles finals. Both are now one win away from securing India’s first-ever Asian Games singles event in squash and, crucially, a qualifying berth for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Anahat achieved one of the biggest wins of her career when she fought back from 0-2 down to stun Japan’s world number six Satomi Watanabe 9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3. Meanwhile, Abhay beat Pakistan’s Muhammad Irfan 11-3, 12-10, 11-6 in the men’s semi-finals.

Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar added another bronze in mixed doubles squash after losing to Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yi and Tang Ming Hong in the semifinals. It was Joshna’s sixth medal from the Asian Games.

Indian kabaddi teams delivered a golden double. The women’s team defeated Iran 37-34 before the men’s team defeated the same opponents 40-34 in a thrilling final. The men’s win was particularly significant after the chaos surrounding the Hangzhou final three years ago, when India beat Iran 33-29 after a long umpiring dispute. It was the ninth Asian Games gold for the men’s team and their biggest winning margin against Iran in the last three editions.

The men’s ice hockey team also kept their quest for gold alive by defeating Japan 2-0 to confirm their place in the semi-finals.
In shooting, Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa K Vinod and Ashi Chouksey bagged silver in the women’s 50m 3 position team event. India finished with 1,763 points behind China, who equaled the Games record with 1,773 points.

Tilottama and Vidarsa also qualified for the singles final, but both missed the podium, finishing fourth and fifth.

A HISTORY OF SAWAN SCRIPTS MARATHON

Sawan Barwal’s silver was arguably India’s most historic medal of the day. The runner from Himachal Pradesh clocked 2:11:37 to finish behind Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita, ending India’s long wait for an Asian Games men’s marathon medal. Barwal also lowered his own national record when he became the first Indian to break 2:12 in the marathon earlier this year. He is only the fourth Indian to win a marathon medal at the Asian Games.

A MIXED DAY ON THE TRACK

On the track, Tajinder Pal Singh Toor missed out on an Asian Games shot put hat-trick and settled for silver. The reigning champion put in a strong performance on a rainy evening but was unable to complete a third straight triumph.

Prachi Chaudhary also had reason to celebrate, as she won her first individual medal of the Asian Games with bronze in the women’s 400m. Her podium finish added to India’s athletics success on a day that saw both encouraging performances and painful setbacks.

Tejaswin Shankar finished the first day of the decathlon at the top of the standings with 4,338 points, holding an 88-point lead over China’s Chen Xinghua. His strongest performances were in the long jump and the high jump, when he cleared 7.53 m and 2.18 m, both the best performances in the field.

Shankar clocked 10.98 seconds in the 100m, threw 13.16m in the shot put and ran 48.59 seconds in the 400m. He will feature in the remaining five events on Sunday.

Animesh Kujur advanced to the men’s 200m final while Yoonus Shah and Gulveer Singh also advanced to the men’s 1500m final. However, there were some painful exits. Jyoti Yarraji did not start the 100m hurdles due to injury, while national record holder Praveen Chithravel was forced out of the triple jump final after pulling out with a hamstring injury in his first attempt.

Parul Chaudhary and Pooja narrowly missed out on medals in the women’s 1500m, while Vishal TK finished off the podium in the men’s 400m after earlier winning a medal in the 4x400m medley relay.

LAKSHYA AND AYUSH EXIT, GAYATRI-TREESA IMPRES

The badminton campaign produced mixed results. Lakshya Sen suffered a second-round exit, losing 12-21, 21-15, 14-21 to Singapore’s former world champion Loh Kean Yew.

Meanwhile, Ayush Shetty advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after defeating Kazakhstan’s Makhsut Tajibullayev 21-7, 21-7, but was eliminated in the third round by Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen.

Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly scored one of the biggest wins of the day in the women’s doubles, stunning Japan’s World No.3 Mayu Matsumoto and Yuki Fukushima 24-22, 21-18 to reach the quarter-finals.
Unnati Hooda also created a major upset by beating Indonesian world number six Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-19, 21-13 in straight games to reach the women’s singles quarterfinals. The 19-year-old had earlier battled past Malaysia’s Wong Ling Ching 21-14, 20-22, 21-19.

Singles players faced the unusual scheduling challenge of cramming two rounds into one day. Former Asian Games bronze medalist HS Prannoy took to X to express his displeasure and pointed out the difficulty of playing two high-intensity singles matches in a day.

DHIRAJ HITS THE MARK ON DAY 1 OF ARCHER

On the opening day of archery, Dhiraj Bommadevar stole the show as he broke the Asian Games qualification record in men’s recurve with 698 points.

The world No. 4 Indian shot to the top of the qualifying order, bettering the previous record of 690 and also setting a new national record.

Men Singles Singles: Dhiraj Bommadevara dominated qualifying with 698 points to earn the No. 1 seed. Neeraj Chauhan finished 20th with 676 while Yashdeep Bhoge was 25th with 665.
Men’s recurve team: India finished third in the qualifiers with 2039 points and advanced to the knockout stages.
Female Composite Individual: Chikitha Taniparthi dominated qualifying with 705 points, just one point short of the games record.
Women’s composite team: India finished second with 2,099 points, on par with China.
Women, recurrent individuals: Kumkum Anil Mohod finished 10th with 666 points while Kirti Sharma was 20th with 653 and Ankita Bhakat 25th with 643.
Women’s Recurring Team: India finished sixth and qualified for the knockout stages.
Men’s Composite Individual: Sahil Jadhav finished fifth with 709 points while Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru and Kushal Dalal finished 14th and 16th respectively.
Composite Men’s Team: India finished third in the qualifiers and advanced to the knockout stages.

MEDALS WON

Kabaddi: India’s women’s team defeated Iran 37-34 in the final to win the gold.
Kabaddi: India’s men’s team defeated Iran 40-34 in the final to win the gold.
Athletics: Sawan Barwal claimed silver in the men’s marathon in 2:11:37.
Shooting: Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa K Vinod and Ashi Chouksey won silver in the women’s 50m rifle 3 position team event.
Athletics: Tajinder Pal Singh Toor won silver in men’s shot put.
Athletics: Prachi Chaudhary won bronze in women’s 400m.
squash: Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar won the mixed doubles bronze.

UNSUCCESSFUL MEDALS / KEY RESULTS

Shooting: Tilottama Sen finished fourth and Vidarsa K Vinod fifth in the 50m individual 3 positions final.
Badminton: Lakshya Sen lost to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew in the second round, while Ayush Shetty was knocked out by Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the third round.
Athletics: Praveen Chithravel was forced out of the triple jump final after pulling out with a hamstring injury.
Athletics: Jyoti Yarraji did not start the heats of the women’s 100m hurdles due to injury.
Athletics: Parul Chaudhary and Pooja missed out on a medal in the women’s 1500m.
Athletics: Vishal TK missed the podium in the men’s 400m.

– The end