Asian Games Day 7: India wins two kabaddi golds and marathon silver, rises into top 10

India claimed two kabaddi golds and a marathon silver on Day 7 of the Asian Games on September 26, 2026, lifting the country into the top 10 of the medal table and taking its overall tally to 30 medals.

It was India's most successful day at these Games so far, with a haul of two golds, three silvers and two bronzes, while the day also produced notable near-misses and injury setbacks. Squash players Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh reached their singles finals, the kabaddi teams retained their titles, and Sawan Barwal secured a historic marathon silver for India.

In squash, Anahat Singh recovered from 0-2 down to beat Japan's Satomi Watanabe 9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3 to reach the women's singles final, and Abhay Singh reached the men's final by defeating Pakistan's Muhammad Irfan 11-3, 12-10, 11-6. Both finalists are one win away from India's first-ever Asian Games singles squash gold and from securing a qualification berth for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar took bronze in mixed doubles after losing their semifinal to Hong Kong's Lee Ka Yi and Tang Ming Hong; for Joshna, it was her sixth Asian Games medal.

India's kabaddi teams produced a golden double, with the women's side defeating Iran 37-34 and the men's team beating Iran 40-34. The men's victory was the team's ninth Asian Games gold and represented their biggest winning margin against Iran across the last three editions; the report recalled the controversial Hangzhou final three years ago, when India beat Iran 33-29 after a lengthy refereeing dispute. On the hockey field, the men's team beat Japan 2-0 to confirm a place in the semifinals.

Sawan Barwal won silver in the men's marathon in 2:11:37, finishing behind Japan's Ichitaka Yamashita and lowering his own national record; the report notes he had earlier this year become the first Indian to break 2:12 for the marathon and that he is only the fourth Indian to win an Asian Games marathon medal. In shooting, Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa K Vinod and Ashi Chouksey took silver in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions team event with a combined 1,763 points, behind China which equalled the Games record on 1,773. Tilottama and Vidarsa qualified for the individual final but finished fourth and fifth respectively.

On the track and in combined events, Tajinder Pal Singh Toor took silver in the shot put, missing a third successive Asian Games gold, while Prachi Chaudhary won bronze in the women's 400m for her first individual Asian Games medal. Tejaswin Shankar led the decathlon after day one with 4,338 points, holding an 88-point advantage over China's Chen Xinghua after posting field-best efforts of 7.53m in the long jump and 2.18m in the high jump, alongside marks of 10.98 seconds in the 100m, 13.16m in the shot put and 48.59 seconds in the 400m; he will compete in the remaining five events on Sunday. Animesh Kujur advanced to the men's 200m final, and Yoonus Shah and Gulveer Singh progressed to the men's 1,500m final.

India's athletics programme also suffered setbacks: Jyoti Yarraji did not start the women's 100m hurdles heats due to injury, and national record-holder Praveen Chithravel pulled up with a hamstring problem on his first attempt and was forced out of the triple jump final. Parul Chaudhary and Pooja narrowly missed medals in the women's 1,500m, while Vishal TK finished outside the podium in the men's 400m after earlier earning a medal in the mixed 4x400m relay.

Badminton produced mixed results as Lakshya Sen exited in round two, losing 12-21, 21-15, 14-21 to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew, and Ayush Shetty advanced past Kazakhstan's Makhsut Tajibullayev 21-7, 21-7 before losing in the third round to Chou Tien Chen. Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly upset world No. 3 Mayu Matsumoto and Yuki Fukushima 24-22, 21-18 to reach the quarter-finals, while Unnati Hooda beat Indonesia's Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-19, 21-13 to reach the women's singles quarter-finals after earlier defeating Wong Ling Ching 21-14, 20-22, 21-19. HS Prannoy took to X to criticise the scheduling that required players to contest two high-intensity singles matches in one day. On archery's opening day, Dhiraj Bommadevara set a new qualification and national record in men's recurve with 698 points, topping the standings and bettering the previous mark of 690.

Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh head into their respective squash finals one victory away from securing Asian Games singles gold and an Olympic qualification berth, while Tejaswin Shankar will contest the final five decathlon events on Sunday.