Gulveer Singh bettered his bronze from Hangzhou to bag a silver in 10,000m.
| Photo Credit: R.V. MOORTHY
It needs a touch of magic to share the spotlight with Gulveer Singh’s incredible consistency. On Friday (September 25, 2026), Baranica Elangovan managed to do so, soaring high and leaping into history as the first-ever Indian to win an Asian Games medal in pole vault.
The 29-year-old cleared a height of 4.15m to take joint bronze with Polina Ivanova of Kazakhstan at the Paloma Mizuho athletics stadium in Nagoya. It was nowhere close to her best, but it was enough to add India’s third medal from track and field on day two of the competition after Manpreet Kaur had finished third in shot put and Gulveer bettered his own performance with a silver in the 10,000m.
Baranica cleared a height of 4.15m to take joint bronze with Ivanova of Kazakhstan.
| Photo Credit:
R.V. MOORTHY
The other two are events that India has done reasonably well in in the past. Pole vault, meanwhile, is an outlier in Indian athletics; women’s vaulting even more so. Sindhushree, however, had a disappointing outing, ending with no mark against her name.
Gulveer, on the other hand, has redefined consistency when it comes to Indian athletics. As much as Neeraj Chopra has been the poster boy of Indian track and field, Gulveer comes close in terms of performances, if not necessarily in medals. On Friday (September 25), the 28-year-old added yet another achievement to his kitty, winning silver in 28:29.38s, improving on his bronze from three years ago.
The timing was far from his personal or even season’s best, but it hardly mattered. He could be in action three more times over the next few days, starting with the 1500m heats on Saturday (September 26), followed by the final and the 5000m.
Manpreet Kaur won the bronze medal with an effort of 17.17m.
| Photo Credit:
R.V. MOORTHY
India’s third medallist for the day, Manpreet, managed a best throw of 17.17m in her fourth attempt to end up on the podium behind the Chinese pair of Song Jiayuan (19.40) and Zhang Linru (18.14). Krishna Jayasankar came fifth with a best of 16.57m. Damneet Singh was ninth in hammer throw with 67.56 while Praveen Kumar threw 65.24 to finish 11th.
Meanwhile, both Indian sprinters in the men’s 100m crashed out in the semifinals — Gurindervir Singh clocking 10.32s and Animesh Kujur 10.38s — while the heptathletes too disappointed, Pooja ended sixth with 5,368 points and Anamika A.K. totalled 5,234 for eighth place.
Thailand’s Puripol Boonson stormed to the 100m title with a new Games record of 9.90s, the only one to go sub-10 throughout the competition, thrice while China’s Chen Yujie was crowned the continent’s fastest woman in 11.06.
Kiran Pahal (53.44) and Prachi (53.46) advanced to the final of the 400m, as did Vishal T.K. (45.27) among the men.
Published – September 26, 2026 12:11 am IST
