India won a total of 85 medals in the Asian Games 2026 held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. These include 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals.
If we talk about Indian athletes, they won a total of 24 medals in Athletics (Track and Field) in the Asian Games 2026, which includes 1 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze medals.
If we look at the statistics, it was not a great performance. In the 1974 Games in Tehran, Indian athletes won 15 medals, which included 4 gold medals.
So should it be believed that Indian athletics has lagged behind in the last 52 years or there has been no growth in it?
At least the figures tell this story. But performance cannot be accurately assessed based on numbers or statistics alone, at least in those sports where performance can be easily compared.
Hockey, football, basketball etc. are sports where assessment is sometimes done on the basis of individual likes and dislikes. Like if a person likes Virat Kohli then he will appreciate only him.
But athletics and swimming are two sports in which individual results can be measured. And comparisons can be made. And before reaching any conclusion it becomes necessary to look at individual performance for proper assessment. Mere medal tally cannot suffice.
Now if we talk about the Olympic performance of Milkha Singh, PT Usha and Shriram Singh, then none of them won the Olympics. Milkha and Usha stood fourth and Shriram stood seventh. But Milkha's time of 44.77 in 400 meters in Rome Olympics was world class.
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Usha's time of 55.42 in 400 meter hurdles in Los Angeles was amazing. Similarly, Shriram Singh finished seventh in 800 meters at the Montreal Olympic Games but his time of 1:45.77 was an Asian record and stood for 32 years.
India's performance in Aichi-Nagoya
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And now let's talk about Nagoya. Indian athletes broke five national records in Nagoya, two of which were commendable.
Sawan Barwal may have had to be satisfied with the silver medal but he completed the marathon race in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 37 seconds and broke his own record by 21 seconds.
This medal of India in marathon came after 48 years. Before this, H.K. Sitaram had won the bronze medal in the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi.
Sadly, no Indian journalist got up in the morning and went to the race to cover this spectacular performance. There would have been a medal added to Sawan Barwal's name in the medal table but it would not have been written that it was a world class performance.
While Barwal did wonders outside the stadium, Vidya Ramraj created history brilliantly at the Mizuho Park Stadium in Nagoya.
Vidya of Tamil Nadu won three medals and in 400 meter hurdles also broke the 42 year old national record of PT Usha with the bronze medal.
Vidya's timing of 54.75 broke PT Usha's record of 55.42 which Usha had set in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Apart from this, Vidya along with Kiran Pahal, M. Poovamma and Prachi Chaudhary won the gold medal in 4x400 meter relay.
In this race, Vidya performed brilliantly while running the last leg of the race and came from behind to give India the gold. In the seventies, Shriram Singh often used to accomplish this feat in men's relay races. Vidya also won silver medal in mixed relay.
Parul Choudhary also won the bronze medal in 3000 meter steeplechase but her time of 9:08.67 was very good, which was 3.79 seconds better than her own national record. Parul is a good athlete but perhaps her running style and tall height suit her better for marathon than steeplechase.
If in this way an athlete does better than his best performance then he cannot be called bad at all.
The problem is that officials often overestimate athletes' performance before going into games, and often some media personnel, who may not know the ins and outs of each game, raise expectations from athletes in their reports based on what those officials say. And when athletes do not live up to those expectations, the athletes have to suffer the consequences.
Women's pole vault falls in this category. Baranika Elangovan won the bronze medal in this event by jumping 4.15 meters, which is the first medal for India in this event. Elangovan's performance cannot be called bad under any circumstances.
Women's pole vault has recently been introduced and Elangovan's performance should be considered good. Similarly, Sarvesh Kushare won the silver medal in men's high jump. Earlier, the previous medal of this event was won by Bhim Singh in the 1970 Bangkok Games.
India won two medals in javelin without Neeraj Chopra
Before Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, javelin throw was considered the weakest event of Indian athletics. Pakistan's record in this event was much better than India.
Mohammad Nawaz won gold for Pakistan with a record in the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games and Allahdad won the title in the 1973 Asian Championship. Despite the absence of Neeraj Chopra in Nagoya, two Indian javelin throwers took the field and both won medals.
Yashveer took silver while Rohit Yadav got bronze medal. This is a big achievement of these Asian Games. This time Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem could not win the medal due to a finger injury.
Ansi Sojan won the silver medal in the long jump event in a tough and dramatic match. NC won this medal by jumping 6.53 meters. Till the last round, NC was a strong contender for the gold medal and India's second athlete Shaili Singh was in the race for the bronze medal.
But in the sixth and last round, two Chinese athletes dashed the hopes of the Indian players. While Mengi Tan overtook Shaili Singh with a jump of 6.46 metres, Wai Huang spoiled NC's game with a jump of 6.55 metres.
Tejaswin Shankar of Delhi won the bronze medal in decathlon with 7,934 points. Decathlon of 10 events is considered to be the toughest event in athletics where the athlete has to participate in 10 events in two days.
Although Tejaswin's best score is 8,057, he could not reach it in Nagoya and Jinhua Chen of China won the silver medal with 8,012 points. As soon as Shankar's event ended, 1974 Tehran Asian Games decathlon gold medalist Vijay Singh Chauhan praised Shankar on social media.
Did India make a mistake by sending Jyoti to the Asian Games?
Harita Bhadra also had to be satisfied with a bronze medal in the 200 meter race. Harita's personal best time is 23.14 seconds and it was difficult for her to think about gold or silver.
It is difficult for any athlete to repeat or better his best performance in every competition.
Although Manpreet Kaur has thrown the shot put 18.06 meters, but in Nagoya she had to be satisfied with 17.17 meters and was limited to the bronze medal.
Long distance runner Gulveer Singh became the first Indian male athlete to win three medals in the same Asian Games. Gulveer won silver medal in 1,500 meters and 10,000 meters and bronze medal in 5,000 meters. Earlier, PT Usha had won four gold and one bronze medal in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
Yes, some more medals could have come if everything had been as per the expectations of the Indian camp. But mere hope does not suffice. Accountability is also important. To some extent, it would be right to say that it would have been better if a little wisdom had been exercised before sending the athletes to Nagoya.
Now take Jyoti Yaraji only. It is true that Jyoti has a national record in 100 meter hurdles and she is the first Indian woman to run below 13 seconds. He also represented India in the Paris Olympics. But she was recovering from a knee injury.
The Athletics Federation made a mistake in sending him to Nagoya. Jyoti suffered knee pain during the warm-up before the event and the Athletics Federation decided to keep her out of the competition. It would have been better if he had not been sent to Japan.
In triple jump, Praveen Chitrawal was also out of the competition due to injury and Yashas Palaksha was out of 400 meter hurdles due to hamstring strain.
Avinash Sable's fourth-place finish in the 3,000 meter steeplechase was certainly a matter of disappointment. Sable, the champion of the previous Games, was also recovering from injury. Nevertheless, he participated in the competition and achieved a time of 8:21.67, which was not very bad, but could not get him a medal. Japan's Ruji Miura won gold with a Games record of 8:17.36.
The thing to note is that now it is not just China or Japan that are above Indian athletes. Korea has made a lot of progress in the last few years. Also, after the 1982 Asian Games, the Gulf countries have made a big place for themselves in athletics by spending money like water. If the Olympic Council of Asia integrates Australia into Asia in the future, then the difficulties for India will increase further.
Overall, the performance of Indian athletes was satisfactory. Definitely disappointed with the sprinters. But nothing is certain in sports. It keeps going up and down. Yes, one thing is certain that at present no Indian athlete seems to be able to shine at the world level any time soon.
India's medal winners in athletics
Gold:
Women's 4x400m relay: Vidya Ramraj, Kiran Pahal, M. Poovamma and Prachi Chaudhary
Silver:
Gulveer Singh (10,000 m, 1,500 m)
Marathon: Sawan Barwal
Shot Put: Tejinder Pal Toor
High Jump: Sarvesh Kushare
Long Jump: Murali Sreeshankar
Javelin Throw: Yashvir Singh
Mixed 4x400m relay: M. Poovamma, T.K. Vishal, Vidya Ramraj, T.S. Manu
Women's Long Jump: Ansi Sojan
Bronze:
5,000 meters: Gulveer Singh
Decathlon: Tejaswin Shankar
Javelin Throw: Rohit Yadav
Men's 4x400m Relay: Dharamveer Chaudhary, T.S. Manu, J. Kumar, T.K. huge
Women's 5,000 metres: Parul Chaudhary
Women's 10,000m: Seema Kumari
Women's 400m: Prachi Chaudhary
Women's 200m: Harita Bhadra
Women's 400m Hurdles: Vidya Ramraj
Women's 3,000 meters steeplechase: Parul Chaudhary
Women's Pole Vault: Baranika Elangovan
Women's Shot Put: Manpreet Kaur
Women's High Jump: Pooja Singh
Mixed 4x400m Relay: Gurvinder Singh, Sneha, Animesh Kujur, Harita Bhadra
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