Asian Games 2026 day one: China leads as India pick up two shooting silvers in Aichi-Nagoya

India and a number of other nations registered notable results on Day 1 of the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya on September 20, with China leading the medal table and India securing two silver medals in shooting.

India opened its account with two silver medals, both involving Elavenil Valarivan; she, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod posted 1898.0 in the women’s 10m air rifle team event to take silver, while Elavenil also won an individual silver in the same discipline. Suchika Tariyal advanced toward a medal in mixed martial arts’ Asian Games debut by beating Mongolia’s Altanchimeg Baigalmaa 2-0 in the women’s traditional 60kg quarter-final and will compete for a place in the gold medal match. In team sports, the Indian women’s cricket side progressed to the final after a victory over Bangladesh, the men’s hockey team beat Indonesia 13-1 in their Pool A opener and the women’s hockey team defeated Uzbekistan.

In the women’s 10m air rifle final, Japan’s Hinata Taichi took gold with an Asian Games record score of 253.0, finishing 0.6 points ahead of Elavenil Valarivan, while South Korea’s Ban Hyojin claimed bronze. China won the corresponding team event with 1904.2, a qualification world record, finishing ahead of the Indian trio’s 1898.0.

Triathlon produced host-country gold and Chinese podiums: Japan’s Takumi Hojo won the men’s race in 52:56 with China’s Zhang Xirui nine seconds adrift in second, and China swept the women’s podium with Lin Xinyu winning in 57:37 and teammate Huang Anqi taking silver.

China dominated the swimming programme at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, where Pan Zhanle held off South Korea’s Kim Youngbeom by 0.04 seconds to retain the men’s 100m freestyle title. Xu Jiayu set a Games record of 51.98 to win the men’s 100m backstroke with Japan’s Hidekazu Takehara second. In the women’s events, 13-year-old Yu Zidi won the 200m butterfly in a Games record 2:05.08 ahead of teammate Chang Mohan, Tang Qianting took the 50m breaststroke in a Games record 29.45 with Japan’s Satomi Suzuki second in a national record, and Li Bingjie won the 1500m freestyle ahead of Singapore’s Gan Ching Hwee.

South Korea’s first gold arrived in modern pentathlon when Sung Seung-min won the women’s individual event; the South Korean men retained their Hangzhou team title with 4,779 points while Jun Woong-tae secured individual silver. In karate, Japan’s Maho Ono won the women’s individual kata, Japan’s ninth consecutive title in that event. Teqball produced a historic result as Myanmar’s Wai Khin Hnin recovered from a set down to beat Indonesia’s Sumaya 2-1 (10-12, 12-8, 12-9) and claim the sport’s first Asian Games gold.

Additional podiums included Macao, China’s one-two in men’s changquan as Kuong Chi Hin won gold with 9.723 points ahead of Song Chi Kuan and Indonesia’s Seraf Naro Siregar took bronze; Kazakhstan’s Rinata Sultanova won the cycling women’s individual time trial in 36:23.72 ahead of China’s Zhang Hao. India finished Day 1 joint-10th with Hong Kong, both nations having two silver medals, while China had raced to double figures in golds and led the table with 20 medals in total, tied with hosts Japan on overall medals but ahead on gold count; South Korea were third with 14 medals, including four golds.

Competition continues on September 21 for Day 2 of the Asian Games 2026, when more finals and medal events are scheduled to determine how the standings evolve.