NEW DELHI: India enjoyed another productive day at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, adding seven medals on Sunday as athletics emerged as the biggest contributor with five podium finishes, while squash delivered two silver medals. The medal haul included silver medals for Ancy Sojan and Sarvesh Kushare, bronze medals for Parul Chaudhary, Tejaswin Shankar and Harita Bhadra, and two silver medals in squash through Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh. India's boxing campaign also received a major boost, with Parveen Hooda, Ankush Panghal and Narender Berwal all assuring themselves of medals by reaching the semifinals in their respective categories. There was disappointment in badminton, however, as PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila all bowed out in the quarterfinals of their individual events.
Athletics provided India with its biggest haul of the day. Parul Chaudhary produced one of the standout performances, breaking her personal best and setting a new national record of 9:08.67 to win bronze in the women's 3000m steeplechase. It was Parul's second Asian Games steeplechase medal after she won silver in the same event at Hangzhou in 2022. Bahrain's Winfred Yavi won gold in 9:04.36, while Kazakhstan's Norah Jeruto Tanui took silver in 9:06.82. India's Ankita also set a personal best of 9:19.24 but finished fourth. Ancy Sojan came agonisingly close to gold in the women's long jump. Her 6.53m effort in the fifth round put her in front, but China's Huang Yingying produced a 6.55m jump with her final attempt to snatch the title by two centimetres. Shaili Singh was also denied a medal in the final round. Her 6.42m had put her third, but China's Mengyi Tan jumped 6.46m with her final attempt to move into bronze-medal position. In the men's high jump, Sarvesh Kushare also had to settle for silver after a closely fought contest. He cleared 2.25m on his second attempt, but Chinese Taipei's Chao Hsuan-Fu had already cleared the height on his first attempt. Tejaswin Shankar completed India's athletics medal haul with bronze in the decathlon. After two gruelling days, Tejaswin won the final event, the 1500m, in 4:33.09 and finished with 7,934 points. Japan's Yuma Maruyama won gold with 8,123 points, while China's Xinghua Chen took silver. Earlier, Harita Bhadra won bronze in the women's 200m, clocking 23.20 seconds to edge Japan's Ido Abigeirufuka by 0.01 seconds. Singapore's Shanti Pereira won gold in 22.78s and China's Chen Yujie took silver in 22.93s.
India's wait for a squash singles gold at the Asian Games continued, but both Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh produced historic silver-medal finishes. World No. 5 Sivasangari Subramaniam defeated 18-year-old Anahat 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 in the women's singles final, while world No. 17 Ng Eain Yow beat Abhay 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 in the men's final. Malaysia therefore swept both singles gold medals. For Anahat, the silver was nevertheless a landmark achievement as she became the first Indian woman to reach an Asian Games squash singles final. The singles results also ended India's hopes of taking the direct qualification opportunity for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics through the Asian Games individual competition.
While squash narrowly missed out on gold, Indian boxing delivered three guaranteed medals. Parveen Hooda defeated Uzbekistan's world championships silver medallist Navbakhor Khamidova 5-0 in the women's 65kg quarterfinal to reach the semifinals. It was Parveen's first bout of the Games after receiving a walkover in the previous round. She said she was beginning to regain confidence after returning from a suspension and moving up from 57kg to 65kg. Ankush Panghal also advanced with a dominant 5-0 win over Tajikistan's Nekruz Salimov in the men's 80kg quarterfinal. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist controlled the contest from the opening round and secured his Asian Games debut medal. Narender Berwal completed the trio of assured medals by stopping Thailand's Adthapong Saengtep in the men's 90+kg quarterfinal in less than two minutes. The Indian landed a barrage of heavy blows and forced three standing counts before the referee stopped the contest. The day ended in disappointment for Sachin Siwach, however, as the Commonwealth Games champion lost 0-5 to Japan's Shunsuke Kitamoto in the men's 60kg quarterfinal.
Badminton provided one of India's biggest disappointments on Sunday. PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila all lost their respective quarterfinals, meaning India failed to win an individual badminton medal at the Games. Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, playing her third match in less than 24 hours, went down 21-11, 18-21, 10-21 to Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei. "It's a bit hurtful but I need to recover from this. It would have been good if I would have gone to the semifinals. Unfortunate but never mind, these things keep happening. It's important to get back stronger," Sindhu said. Unnati, 19, fought hard before losing 16-21, 21-14, 17-21 to three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi. Treesa and Gayatri, who won a maiden World Championships bronze last month, lost 18-21, 9-21 to Malaysia's Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan. Tanisha and Dhruv also pushed world No. 1 Chinese pair Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dongping before losing 14-21, 21-18, 18-21. India had won three badminton medals at Hangzhou, including men's doubles gold through Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, but none of the individual competitors could reach the semifinals this time.
India also recorded important wins elsewhere. The women's hockey side beat Singapore 7-0, while the men's volleyball side defeated Vietnam 3-0. Indian archers advanced in all six team events contested, including the men's and women's compound teams, compound mixed team, recurve men's and women's teams, and recurve mixed team. In athletics, Mohammed Afsal qualified for the men's 800m final, while India's women's 4x100m relay quartet of Abinaya Rajarajan, Tamanna, Sneha Sathyanarayana and Sudeshna Shivankar topped its heat to reach the final. India also progressed in surfing and continued its campaign in shooting, while there were mixed results in fencing, sepaktakraw, kurash and equestrian. With seven medals added on Sunday and three more assured in boxing, Day 8 provided India with plenty of positives even as the medal tally remained short of the gold-medal gains needed to climb the standings.
