India Athletics Ends Nagoya 2026 With 24 Asian Games Medals

India’s athletics campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games ended with 24 medals and sixth place in the sport’s medal table, a return of one gold, nine silver and 14 bronze. The total was five lower than India’s 29-medal haul at Hangzhou 2023, while the gold-medal count fell from six to one.

The sole gold came from the women’s 4x400m relay team of Kiran Pahal, Machettira R. Poovamma, Prachi Choudhary and Vithya Ramraj. Their time of 3:29.69 placed them ahead of Bahrain, who clocked 3:30.21 for silver, and China, who took bronze in 3:31.02. It was India’s first athletics gold of the Games and meant the country had won the women’s 4x400m relay at six of the last seven Asian Games.

Although Nagoya did not reproduce the top-of-the-podium success of Hangzhou, India’s athletes delivered national records, personal bests and first-time Asian Games medals in several events. The campaign also showed a wider spread of medals across track and field disciplines, even as the overall tally and medal-table placing declined.

How Nagoya compared with Hangzhou

At Hangzhou 2023, India won six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze medals to finish third in the athletics medal table. Nagoya produced more bronze medals, 14 compared with nine, but fewer silvers and significantly fewer golds. Hangzhou had been India’s biggest athletics medal haul since 1951.

The change was particularly notable among returning champions. Neeraj Chopra, the men’s javelin gold medallist in Hangzhou, withdrew because of an ankle injury. Avinash Sable, who had won the men’s 3000m steeplechase in Hangzhou with a Games record, finished fourth in Nagoya in 8:21.67 and subsequently did not start the 5000m.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor moved from shot put gold in Hangzhou to silver in Nagoya with 20.64m, behind Iran’s Mohammadreza Tayebi’s Games-record 20.81m. The result extended Toor’s Asian Games medal run to three consecutive editions after his gold medals in Jakarta 2018 and Hangzhou 2023.

Parul Chaudhary, the Hangzhou women’s 5000m champion, earned bronze in both the women’s 3000m steeplechase and 5000m. Her 9:08.67 in the steeplechase was a national record, and she also placed fourth in the 1500m with a personal best of 4:09.46. India’s men’s 4x400m team of Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu T.S., Jay Kumar and Vishal T.K. also changed from gold to bronze, clocking 3:01.61 behind Japan and Qatar.

There were important individual returns elsewhere. Gulveer Singh completed a three-medal Games with silver in the 10,000m, silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 5000m. His 10,000m silver made him the first Indian to win two Asian Games medals in that event, following his Hangzhou bronze. Vithya Ramraj also won three medals: relay gold, mixed 4x400m silver and 400m hurdles bronze.

National records and historic podiums

Sawan Barwal’s men’s marathon silver in 2:11:37 was a national record and personal best. It delivered India’s first Asian Games marathon medal since 1982 and its first marathon medal won outside India. Vithya’s 54.75-second bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles broke the national record of 55.42 set by P.T. Usha at the 1984 Olympics.

The mixed 4x100m relay quartet of Gurindervir Singh, Sneha S. Sathyanarayana, Animesh Kujur and Harita Bhadra won bronze in a national-record 41.06 seconds. Baranica Elangovan added a first-ever Asian Games pole vault medal for India, taking bronze with 4.15m, while Pooja Singh’s 1.84m bronze ended India’s wait for a women’s high jump medal since 2002.

Other medal performances included Yash Vir Singh’s personal-best 85.72m javelin silver, Rohit Yadav’s 84.35m javelin bronze, Murali Sreeshankar’s long jump silver and Ancy Sojan’s long jump silver. India left Nagoya with fewer golds than in Hangzhou, but with 24 medals, four national records and landmark results across the programme.