Asian Games 2026: Five gold medals help India end on a high note
NAGOYA: IT was like the last day of a wedding. Barring an equestrian event on Sunday morning, the festivities are over; done and dusted for the next four years. The overlays are being peeled one after the other. The temporary structures are getting dismantled and weary volunteers are slowly leaving their stations. Only the Closing Ceremony remains. After a slightly iffy start to the Asian Games, the sun has been shining from an Indian perspective. Golden runs continued even on Saturday.
NAGOYA: IT was like the last day of a wedding. Barring an equestrian event on Sunday morning, the festivities are over; done and dusted for the next four years.
The overlays are being peeled one after the other. The temporary structures are getting dismantled and weary volunteers are slowly leaving their stations. Only the Closing Ceremony remains.
After a slightly iffy start to the Asian Games, the sun has been shining from an Indian perspective.
Golden runs continued even on Saturday. It began with women's archery and golf in the morning. The men's cricket team kept their date with destiny before the men's hockey team booked their LA28 spot. The highlight, though, arrived in the form of an incomparable run to gold in the women's individual recurve archery.
It propelled India to fourth place in the medals tally with 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze. However, it has to be noted that Uzbekistan — who are currently in fifth position — could take the fourth spot if they win gold in the equestrian event on Sunday. Even if Saturday saw two of India's two beloved sides winning gold, the day belonged to Kumkum Mohod, the 17-year-old archer whose unerring accuracy with a bow and arrow dethroned the might of the South Koreans.
The teenager, shooting arrows with a borrowed bow, did what no other Indians had managed to do before. She beat a world champion, a World Championships medallist and a Korean in the final to win gold in recurve.
If she was raging in faraway Okazaki sports park, wrestlers scorched the mat. On top of that, there was a surprise gold in golf – Pranavi Urs became the first Indian woman to bag gold — while Aman Sehrawat stunned world champion Chong Song Han.
India cricket team's win over Pakistan was the icing on the cake. Though there were no handshakes, they had the gold medal dangling around their heads at least — unlike in the Asia Cup which is still lying in the Asian Cricket Council headquarters.
What is heartening is that almost all the medallists are young while some of them were making their debut. A healthy sign with LA28 just two years away.
India's overall medals tally (85) and gold (21) were well below the high of Hangzhou (107 and 28). But, after a head-scratching first week, this was a fine comeback.
Over to Doha.
Asian Games 2026: Kumkum Mohod wins India's 1st ever recurve individual gold medal, earns Olympic quota