India target teqball and shooting medals as hockey and cricket campaigns start at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games
India's athletes will compete at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games on Sunday, September 20, with medal events in teqball and shooting and the opening of hockey and cricket campaigns.
The Indian contingent will be active across multiple disciplines including teqball, shooting, cricket, hockey, badminton, table tennis and wushu, with several medal events scheduled for the day. The women's 10m air rifle individual qualification and team final are set to begin at 6:15 AM IST, while the women's singles teqball bronze-medal match is listed for 6:30 AM and the mixed doubles bronze for 7:00 AM; all three are medal events. Both Indian hockey teams are due to start their Asian Games campaigns at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium, where the men and women will play their pool openers. The Asian Games gold medal carries an Olympic berth for the winners, adding qualification stakes to the tournament.
Teqball player Quimcy Dsouza has two medal opportunities on Sunday: the women's singles bronze-medal match against Japan's Yuina Sakamoto at 6:30 AM, and the mixed doubles bronze-medal match at 7:00 AM alongside Mohamed Anas Beg against Vietnam's Hoang Minh Tan Nguyen and Gia Ngih Trinh; both matches are designated medal events. The Indian mixed pair lost to the Vietnamese combination in the quarterfinals and will now contest the bronze-medal match. Those teqball fixtures are scheduled early in the day, providing immediate podium chances for the Indian contingent.
In shooting, Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod will compete in the women's 10m air rifle individual qualification and the team final at 6:15 AM IST, with the individual final scheduled for 11:00 AM subject to qualification; both stages are medal events. The article identifies the women's 10m air rifle as a specific medal opportunity for India on Sunday. The timing places the shooting final later in the morning pending which athletes advance from qualification.
Swimming entries for India on Sunday include Akash Mani in Men's 100m Freestyle Heat 5 at 7:22 AM and Utkarsh Patil and Rishabh Das in Men's 100m Backstroke Heat 3 at 7:37 AM. In wushu, Aparna will compete in the women's 52kg Round of 16 and Vikrant Baliyan in the men's 75kg Round of 16, while the men's Changquan final is listed as a medal event on the same day. These events create a mix of early-morning heats and knockout rounds across disciplines.
India's hockey schedules specify the women's team will face Uzbekistan at 7:30 AM IST at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Pool B, and the men's team, led by Harmanpreet Singh, will open Pool A against Indonesia at 11:30 AM IST at the same venue in Kakamigahara. The women's side, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, is also noted to take on Bangladesh at 10:30 AM. The article records recent form context: the Indian women finished fifth at the 2026 World Cup (their best in 52 years), have one Asian Games gold (1982) and won bronze at Hangzhou 2023, while the men placed eighth at the 2026 World Cup and are four-time Asian Games gold medallists (1966, 1998, 2014, 2022).
Additional Indian matchups and entries for Sunday include the women's table tennis team facing Indonesia and Singapore and the men's team playing Indonesia and Iran in group matches; the women's badminton team meets Kazakhstan in the first round. In traditional wrestling-style events, Suchika Tariyal meets Altanchimeg Baigalmaa of Mongolia in the women's Traditional 60kg quarterfinal at 7:10 AM, and Varun Sanyal is scheduled to face TBC in the men's Traditional 77kg quarterfinal at 2:00 PM. India's Men’s Team Regu Preliminary Group B will feature Arun Raju, Jasvir Sukhbir Singh, Ashish Chundawat, Shyam Chundawat, Lokhon Singh Elangbam, Bobby Kumar, Ashok Singh Mayengbam, Ram Kumar Sharma, Amarjit Singha, Malemnganba Singh Sorokhaibam, Henary Singh Wahengbam and Akash Yumnam.
The confirmed fixtures that will determine immediate outcomes on Sunday include the women's 10m air rifle individual final at 11:00 AM (subject to qualification) and the teqball bronze-medal matches at 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM, while both Indian hockey teams begin their pool campaigns at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium later in the day.