Nagoya: India finished fourth at the 2026 Asian Games with an impressive tally of 85 medals in total. India bagged 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals at the latest edition of the Asiad.
The early losses in shooting and athletics were offset by a timely gold rush in boxing, archery, wrestling, and hockey as India's finished fourth in the medals tally, the same as the previous edition in Hangzhou.
The first week of the Asian Games was a forgettable one as shooters, who had pocketed seven gold medals in China, drew a blank in the individual rifle and pistol events.
The performance here should be enough for a respectable fourth place finish, albeit far behind the likes of China (in a league of their own), Japan, and South Korea.
There were some exceptional performances in athletics, including long-distance runner Gulveer Singh's three medals, but the contingent's gold count dropped to one from six sealed in Hangzhou, pushing India out of the top 10 in the medals tally.
But the doom and gloom of the first 10 days made way for unexpected joy in the Indian contingent. A major source of those smiles in the Indian camp came via shooter Neeru Dhanda, who became the first Indian female to win a trap gold in Games' history.
That joy was doubled when Neeru teamed up with Kynan Chenai to strike gold in the trap mixed team event.
Compound archery wins a bagful of medals for India at the Asian Games, but this time the recurve archers too made a significant contribution.
The women's recurve team downed the mighty South Koreans to step onto the top of the podium for the very first time before Kumkum Mohod added to that historic run with a gold in the individual event.
In terms of gold medals won, boxing too tasted unprecedented success via Lovlina Borgohain (women's 75kg), Parveen (women's 65kg), and Ankush (men's 80kg).
From no gold medals in Hangzhou, wrestling added two to the Aichi-Nagoya Games tally via Aman Sehrawat (men's freestyle 57kg) and Sujeet Kalkal (men's freestyle 65kg) towards the end of the competition.
The performances on Saturday saw India matching Uzbekistan for the number of gold medals, largely due to the efforts of women's golfer Pranavi Urs, who became the first Indian woman to win an individual gold at the Asian Games, before the men's cricket team beat Pakistan in a high-pressure final.
The men's hockey team won the gold as per expectations, but the women too struck gold to make it a memorable first for the hockey contingent. It was the first time both men and women ended with gold medals in the Asian Games.
The script went as per plan in cricket and kabaddi, with their athletes contributing four gold medals to the tally.
Uzbekistan will conclude their Games' campaign on Sunday, but with a late push, India are likely to maintain their position in the medal standings.
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(With inputs from PTI)
