Baranica Elangovan won a historic first-ever bronze in pole vault at the Asian Games, but as long as it took for the event to finally conclude as Misaki Morota tried to cross the 4.61m mark, it took longer for the Indian to accept she had actually won a medal.

Also read | Persistence and drama as India’s mixed relay team, Seema win medals

“The other Indian pole vaulter, Sindhushree, told me I had won bronze, but I did not believe her. I kept checking again and again and again. Even when my coach Milber Bertrand Russell told me to look up at the big screen for the official confirmation, I was not sure, I wanted him to confirm from the officials. It is so surreal that I don’t think I will believe it till I actually get it in my hands,” a dazed but elated Baranica admitted.

Baranica’s medal came soon after Gulveer Singh, the man who runs like a machine and with as much consistency, improved on his bronze medal from Hangzhou 2023 with a silver in the 10,000m. With two more events he’s entered in, Gulveer was desperate to slip out for rest and recovery. Not surprisingly, he was more than satisfied with the medal. “I have no fixed target in terms of the timings because then I will get stuck on that. Only target is to win medals and keep improving,” an exhausted Gulveer said.

Shot-putter Manpreet Kaur, meanwhile, insisted there was more to come. “There is more to be done; I can get a lot better. But I am still learning a lot of new things under coach Parveer Singh in terms of technique, strength and throwing angles. He kept guiding me even today, suggesting changes that helped me get better,” she said.

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.

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.

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.