Nagoya: Animesh Kujur finally had a reason to celebrate at the Aich-Nagoya Asian Games 2026.
Odisha’s champion sprinter, who ran the penultimate leg, helped the Indian 4x400m Mixed Relay team bag bronze medal on Tuesday.
Sneha ran the opening leg, Gurindervir Singh followed her and Harita Bhadra anchored the race as the Indian team clocked a season-best 41.06 seconds to finish third. China took gold in 40.78s and Thailand silver in 40.87s.
The ecstatic celebrations after the podium summed up the performance. Gurindervir and Kujur had failed to qualify for the Men’s 100m finals, while Kujur managed a fifth-place finish in Men’s 200m. And on Monday, Kujur suffered a nasty fall during baton change in the semifinals.
Gulveer’s hat-trick of medal
A few minutes earlier, long-distance runner Gulveer Singh completed a remarkable hat-trick of medals in Nagoya when he claimed bronze in Men’s 5,000 metres. The 28-year-old Gulveer, a Naib Subedar in Indian Army, had won a silver medal each in Men’s 10,000m and 1,500m.
Gulveer thus became only the second Indian athlete, after the legendary PT Usha, to clinch at least three medals in a single edition of an Asian Games. Usha had won four medals at the 1986 Seoul Games.
