While World and Olympic medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu is treading cautiously in search of an elusive Asian Games medal, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Chanambam Rishikanta Singh has been ruled out due to a recurring knee injury.

With no Chinese lifter in the fray in the women’s 49kg category, Mirabai — who won her third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow with an aggregate of 190kg — has her best chance to open her account in the continental extravaganza.

Mirabai missed the 2018 Asian Games due to a back issue and was injured on the competition platform during the next edition in 2023.

According to chief coach Vijay Sharma, seasoned North Korean Ri Song Gum, Thailand’s Kaeosingkhon Suthasini and Taiwan’s Fang Wan-ling will be Mirabai’s main competitors. Since Ri is a notch above the rest, the 32-year-old Mirabai needs to beat the other two in a field of eight to break the jinx.

“Anything around a 200kg total would get us a medal. A medal is our target, not the total,” Sharma told The Hindu.

Mirabai promptly resumed training after winning gold in Glasgow in July. “She needed to train as she was troubled by shoulder and wrist injuries after the National championships in February. Now, we are not overloading her and playing it safe. The focus is on her fitness,” said Sharma.

The coach added that the three other women lifters in the Indian squad — Gyaneshwari Yadav (53kg), Nirupama Devi (61kg) and Harjinder Kaur (69kg) — would try to achieve their personal bests.

Rishikanta (60kg), the lone male weightlifter in the Indian squad, will not compete in Japan. “He has been carrying the injury for some time. He managed to claim the Commonwealth Games silver despite the injury. But he will not be able to take part in the Asian Games,” said Sharma.

A self-confessed M.S. Dhoni fan, 17-year-old compound archer Prithika Pradeep is inspired by the cricket legend’s calmness as she prepares for her Asian Games debut.

A World youth silver medallist and World Cup Stage silver medallist in 2025, Prithika made her mark by topping the Asiad selection trials and then securing individual bronze and team silver at the World Cup Stage-4 in Madrid this year.

The Nagercoil-born Prithika, who was brought up in Pune and took to archery as a hobby because she liked the name of the sport, is sharpening her skills along with experienced team-mates V. Jyothi Surekha and Chikitha Taniparthi at the Sonipat camp.

“After winning the Madrid medals, I have gained in confidence. But now that is over. I have to focus on the Asian Games. Here, I get to learn by training with the seniors. They share their experience. Jyothi didi tells me to stay calm and give my best without taking pressure,” Prithika told The Hindu.

Pursuing a sport that demands composure, Prithika idolises ‘Captain Cool’ Dhoni. “My favourite is M.S. Dhoni. I admire him a lot. Novak Djokovic is also my favourite. But I like Dhoni’s mindset, calmness and quick decision-making. I read a lot of books on him.”

Prithika said last year’s inaugural Archery Premier League, where archers got 15 seconds instead of 20 to shoot an arrow, also helped her. “It gave me confidence. I enjoyed it. Exposure to foreign archers was also beneficial as they shared their experience.”

While fine-tuning her individual game, Prithika — going through the routine of meditation, warm-up, training, playing matches and gym work — is giving equal attention to teamwork. “We also train for team events — both women’s and mixed team, as we pair up with different male archers,” she said.

Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh lowered the National 100m record twice, while Asian Games silver medallist long jumper Ancy Sojan rewrote the meet record on the opening day of the Federation athletics meet at the Birsa Munda Stadium (Morabadi) on Friday.

In the conducive evening session, Gurindervir clocked 10.17 to break Kujur’s National record in the semifinals. Within minutes, displaying healthy rivalry, Kujur dashed to regain his record with a mark of 10.15 and attained the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark.

Ancy and her close rival Shaili Singh also exhibited another fine episode of rivalry. Responding to Shaili’s first jump of 6.38m, Ancy logged 6.47 before consistently achieving five 6.5m-plus jumps, including her fourth (6.75m) to erase Shaili’s meet record (6.64m) and win the gold with her personal best. However, she fell short of the CWG qualifying mark by nine cm.

“My first target was to perform without a jump foul. I aim for the Commonwealth (qualification mark),” said Ancy.

Deepak Bhatt ran a well-planned race, going into the lead in the last 70m, to claim his maiden 10,000m title.

Bihar’s Vibhaskar Kumar recorded a stunning 10.36 in the men’s 100m heats and qualified for the Asian under-23 championships.

In the decathlon high jump event, Tejaswin Shankar achieved 2.25m to surpass the CWG mark (2.22m).

The results (finals): Men: 10000m (CWG Q mark 27:39.03): 1. Deepak Bhatt (Utk) 29:42.93, 2. Sailesh Kushwaha (Kar) 29:57.56, 3. Prashant Choudhary (UP) 30:36.97.

Hammer throw (CWG Q mark 73.09m): 1. Ashish Jakhar (SSCB) 68.52m, 2. Damneet Singh (Rel.) 67.62m, 3. Ajay Kumar (Har) 64.93m.

3000m steeplechase (CWG Q mark 8:30.26): 1. Balkishan (Har) 8:56.01, 2. Sharuk Khan (UP) 8:56.63, 3. Sunil Joliya Jinabhai (Guj) 8:58.38.

Women: 10000m (CWG Q mark 31:14.14): 1. Ravina Gayakwad (Mah) 35:40.98, 2. Soniya (Utk) 36:16.22, 3. Aarti Pawara (Mah) 36:24.79.

Long jump (CWG Q mark 6.84m): 1. Ancy Sojan (Navy) 6.75m (MR, Old 6.64, Shaili Singh, 2025), 2. Shaili Singh (Anju Bobby George Academy) 6.58m, 3. Bhavani Yadav (NCOE Bengaluru) 6.39m.

3000m steeplechase (CWG Q mark 9:27.41): 1. Ankita Dhyani (Utk) 9:48.16, 2. Prachi Devkar (IOCL) 10:16.29, 3. Anju (Har) 10:28.23.

Discus (CWG Q mark 56.85m): 1. Seema (JSW) 57.29m, 2. Nidhi Rani (Har) 55.05m, 3. Krishna Jayasankar (Rel.) 55.00m.

An 86kg silver medallist at the 2019 World championships and 2022 Asian Games, Deepak Punia made a strong comeback by reaching the 92kg freestyle final on the opening day of the Senior Open Ranking wrestling tournament on the Nandini Nagar Mahavidyalaya campus here on Sunday (May 10, 2026).

Looking in good shape, Punia — who was stranded at the Dubai International Airport with Sujeet Kalkal due to severe flooding in April 2024 and could not make it to the Asian Olympic qualifier in Bishkek — gave dominating performances to beat Rahul 10-0, Sachin Kumar 11-0, Abhishek (who withdrew due to an injury), Rahul Hooda ‘by fall’ and Raja 11-0 to set up a title clash with Vansh.

The biggest upset of the day happened when former Asian bronze medallist and Asian under-23 champion 24-year-old Anirudh Kumar lost to a lesser known Rohit in a 125kg round of 16 bout.

Anirudh got past Harsh and Pushpender before suffering an 8-4 defeat. Rohit fell to Shubham 3-4 in the quarterfinal, ending Anirudh’s chances of making it to the repechage round and fighting for a bronze.

Incidentally, the tournament, which was scheduled to be held in 2023 but was stopped because of the wrestlers’ protest, returned to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) calendar at the same venue.

The playing arena, which was supposed to attract all the attention because of Vinesh Phogat’s comeback from retirement before the ace wrestler was considered ineligible, received a massive number of entries as wrestlers participating here stand to get a chance to participate in World championships and Commonwealth championships selection trials.

Following a delayed start of two hours, altogether 593 freestyle wrestlers from 10 weight categories went through their bouts through the day and late into the evening before the federation decided to conduct bouts up to semifinals and hold the medal matches on Monday morning.