Nagoya: It was India’s best day at the Asian Games 2026, with seven medals being added to the tally including two gold medals in kabaddi.
India had moments to cheer in track and field, with a historic silver coming from Sawan Barwal in Men’s Marathon, another silver through Tajinderpal Singh Toor in Men’s Shot Put and a bronze in Women’s 400m thanks to Prachi Choudhary.
It was a tad disappointing for Toor, who was going for a hat-trick of gold medals in Asian Games. On a rain-soaked night, it needed a record-breaking performance from Iran’s Mohammadreza Tayebise (20.81 metres) to dethrone Toor (20.64 metres).
Shooters Ashi Chouksey, Tilottama Sen and Vidarsa Vinod earned a silver in Women’s 50m Rifle 3P Team event. Squash delivered a bronze in Mixed Doubles through veteran Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar.
At the end of competition on Day 8, India were in 10th place with 4 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Despite a double-gold day, however, India were well behind the 100-medal target at the halfway mark of Asian Games 2026.
A number of certain medals, including gold, have been missed, in shooting, badminton, especially Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in Men’s Doubles, and other disciplines.
On the remaining seven days of competition, India does have chances of upping its medal tally and gold count, like in Hockey, Men’s Cricket, Squash, Archery.
But it’s highly unlikely that Team India will come close to its performance in previous Asian Games.
India had won an all-time best of 107 medals at the Hangzhou Games in China three years ago, including a staggering 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze.
