Day 8: Anahat Singh takes historic squash silver as Indian athletes collect multiple medals in Nagoya
India experienced a day of mixed outcomes at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on September 27, with a landmark squash silver from Anahat Singh and a strong medal haul in athletics offset by a disappointing individual badminton showing.
India sat 12th on the medals table with 37 medals — four gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze — after Sunday’s action, as athletics produced multiple podium finishes while squash yielded two silver medals and badminton failed to deliver an individual medal for the first time since 2014.
Ancy Sojan won silver in the women’s long jump with a best of 6.53m, finishing two centimetres shy of gold, while Shaili Singh placed fourth with 6.42m. Sarvesh Kushare claimed silver in the men’s high jump after clearing 2.25m and losing the title on countback, extending his run following a Commonwealth Games silver earlier this year.
Parul Chaudhary took bronze in the women’s 3000m steeplechase in 9:08.67, setting a new national record and becoming the first Indian woman to break 9:10; Ankita finished fourth in a personal best of 9:19.24. Tejaswin Shankar amassed 7,934 points to win decathlon bronze, finishing strongly in the 1500m, and Harita Bhadra secured bronze in the women’s 200m in 23.20 seconds.
In squash, Abhay Singh lost the men’s singles final 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 to Malaysia’s Ng Eain Yow after Ng produced an eight-point run that decided the match following a close opening. Teenager Anahat Singh became the first Indian woman to reach an Asian Games squash final and finished second to defending champion Sivasangari Subramaniam 11-4, 11-4, 11-7; she had earlier recovered from 0-2 down in the semi-final against Japan’s Satomi Watanabe, saving two match points to reach the final.
Reflecting on her defeat, Anahat said: "Yeah, definitely not happy with the colour of the medal, and I don't think I played my best game today. But Siva was on fire today — she played really, really well. Hopefully, I'll have a few other chances next time. There are other ways to make it to the Olympics, and hopefully I can make it through those." Her loss also meant she missed out on the quota place for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Badminton saw all four Indian entries exit in the quarter-finals: PV Sindhu lost to China’s Chen Yufei 21-11, 18-21, 10-21 after a strong start; Unnati Hooda was beaten by Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi; Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand fell to Malaysia’s Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan; and Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were defeated by China’s Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dongping. The individual medal drought followed a schedule that forced Sindhu to play three singles matches within 24 hours, with her third-round match against Tomoka Miyazaki beginning at 12:07am on Sunday; Sindhu said the scheduling was “not really well organised.” HS Prannoy also raised concerns about long travel, accommodation and lack of recovery time, and Chinese women’s doubles World No. 1 Tan Ning said players had attempted to complain about the schedule.
Boxing produced guaranteed medals after quarter-final wins for Ankush, Parveen and Narender: Ankush beat Tajikistan’s Nekruz Salimov 5-0 in the men’s 80kg, Parveen defeated Uzbekistan’s Navbakhor Khamidova 5-0 in the women’s 65kg, and Narender overcame Thailand’s Adthapong Saengtep with multiple standing counts before the referee stopped the contest in the men’s 90+kg. Sachin Siwach lost his men’s 60kg quarter-final 0-5 to Japan’s Shunsuke Kitamoto.
Shooting qualification rounds provided mixed results ahead of remaining finals: Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Rahi Sarnobat combined for 815 points with 20 inner tens in the women’s 25m pistol team precision qualification, with Esha placed sixth in individual precision on 290, Rahi 15th on 287 and Manu 16th on 287; the event moves to the rapid stage and the final on September 28, keeping all three in contention. In trap qualification, Neeru led the women’s field after Day 1 while Aashima Ahlawat was 16th and Manisha Keer 24th; in men’s trap Kynan Chenai was 11th, Shapath Bharadwaj 22nd and Ahvar Rizvi 35th after Day 1, with trap qualification to continue before the final stages.
Several finals and decisive qualification stages remain on the schedule, including the rapid and final stages of the women’s 25m pistol on September 28 and continued trap qualification ahead of final rounds later in the competition.
