The Indian quartet of Kiran Pahal, Poovamma Machettira, Prachi, and Vithya Ramraj produced an exceptional performance to claim the gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya on Tuesday (September 29, 2026).

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The Indian team won the top prize with a time of 3:29.69 minutes, giving the country its first gold medal in track and field events at the ongoing games. Bahrain and China finished second and third respectively.

Earlier, Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Sneha Sathyanarayana and Harita Bhadra won the bronze medal in the 4x100m mixed relay final after clocking a season best time of 41.06 seconds.

India’s Pooja Singh fared well below her personal best with a leap of 1.84 metres, but that was enough to clinch a bronze medal in women’s high jump.

This was after India’s Gulveer Singh continued his spectacular run of form at the ongoing games by winning a bronze medal in men’s 5000m with a time of 13:32.75, completing a hat-trick of podium finishes in the Japanese city.

In the day’s last track and field event, Dharamveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil, Jay Kumar and Vishal Thennarasu clocked 3:01.61 to finish third behind Japan and Qatar in the men’s 4x400m relay final.

This is Gulveer’s third podium finish at the 2026 games, having won silver medals in the men’s 1500m and 10000m events earlier in the multisport extravaganza.

Gulveer thus became the second Indian man and fourth from the country to win three medals in track and field events in a single edition of the continental games. Before Gulveer, Lavy Pinto (New Delhi 1951, 3 medals), P.T. Usha (Seoul, 1986, 4 medals) and K.M. Beenamol (Busan 2002, 3 medals) had achieved a similar feat.

After Gulveer, the Indian quartet finished third with a time of 41.06 in the 4x400m mixed relay, having finished second behind China in the heats.

China won the gold with a time of 40.78 seconds, while Thailand took silver after finishing in 40.87 seconds.

In the women’s hammer throw, Tanya Chaudhary finished fourth with a 65.35m throw, while compatriot Anushka Yadav ended fifth with 64.56.

India’s Dev Kumar Meena created a national record in the men’s pole vault with an effort of 5.50m, but that was only enough to take him to seventh position. India’s Pooja Olla and Mohammed Afsal finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the men’s and women’s 800m.

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.

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“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.

Thirty minutes of persistence on the track followed by three of absolute drama saw day one of track and field competition end with a bronze and silver for India as the country opened its Asian Games athletics medal tally in Nagoya on Thursday (September 24, 2026).

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The 4x400m mixed relay team rode on tactical personnel changes, impressive lead-off and anchor legs and a stroke of luck to finish in 3:14.46, earning silver in the final event of the day at the Paloma Mizuho stadium. Minutes before, Seema had ended a 16-year drought in 10,000m, willing herself past the line in 32:50.05 to come third.

The Indian quartet of Vishal T.K. — India’s only sub-45-second quartermiler — M.R. Poovamma, Manu T.S. and Vithya Ramraj played their roles to perfection. Vishal ran with blistering pace before Poovamma and Manu ensured the team did not fall too far behind. Vithya, the only surviving member of the team that won silver in 2023, kicked in an extra gear, edging past Vietnam by a mere 0.08 seconds.

Interestingly, India was second in its heat in the morning, clocking 3:16.23, but replaced Jay Kumar and Kiran with Vishal and Vithya for the final.

The UAE, which had led for a large part of the race, fumbled towards the end, with Mariam Kareem dropping the baton just before the final lap. She did try to retrieve it and complete but the team was disqualified by the officials. Even though the UAE protested, the result stayed. Bahrain, led by the indefatigable Salwa Eid Naser, retained top spot with a new Games record of 3:12.87.

Seema wins 10,000m bronze

Seema, meanwhile, became only the third Indian woman to medal in the 10,000m at the Asian Games, after Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut’s historic gold-silver double back in 2010. The 25-year-old, competing in her first Asiad, was impressive as much in her endurance to keep pace with the lead group — which included the likes of Yavi Winfred, Ruth Jebet and local star Nozomi Tanaka — as her race intelligence.

“I led for the first couple of laps and then realised that no one was going to [take the] lead because the best runners will always wait for the final laps. I changed my strategy and decided to run like others because this is my first competition at this level,” Seema said.

“At one point, I thought I could go for the win, but I could not push as hard as the others did. But now I have begun to understand the tactics and race strategy. The next time, I will not wait so long to push myself. I will use my learning from here in the 5000m,” she added.

Heartbreak in triple jump; sprinters reach semis

Triple jumper Asha Ilango suffered a heartbreak, coming fourth despite a best of 13.83m — it was the same as Li Yi of China but the Indian missed out on countback.

Li, the reigning Asian champion, had 13.79m as her next best jump while Asha had 13.65m. Niharika Vashisht finished 10th with a best effort of 13m. Uzbekistan’s Sharifa Davronova defended her title with a massive 14.35m, with Huang Yingying of China second with 14.12m.

Both Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh advanced to the semifinals from their respective 100m heats. Anamika A.K. was seventh in heptathlon after four events with 3177 points and Pooja was ninth with 3159 points.