India win first gold on Day 3 as cricket team retain Asian Games title; China lead medals
India claimed its first gold medal on Day 3 of the Asian Games 2026 on September 22 when the Harmanpreet Kaur-led women’s cricket team beat Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the final to retain their Asian Games title. The victory took India’s overall medal haul to seven, with five of those from shooting and one from MMA.
Smriti Mandhana scored a fifty and received support from Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh as India posted a record 216/3 in the final. India’s spinners then bowled Sri Lanka out for 69 in 15.4 overs to complete the 147-run win.
India confirmed a medal in badminton after the men’s team beat hosts Japan 3-0 in the quarter-final, guaranteeing at least a bronze and advancing to the semi-finals; the women’s badminton team lost 1-3 to Japan in their quarter-final and exited the event. A medal in wushu was also confirmed for India on Day 3.
In shooting, Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane finished fourth in the 10m air rifle mixed team final after topping their qualification group but fading in the medal round; the pair recorded a score of 376.3. Their fourth-place finish denied India another podium result in an event where expectations had been high.
India’s boxing campaign opened positively as Sakshi Chaudhary defeated Olympic bronze medallist Aira Villegas of the Philippines 5-0 in the women’s 51kg. Conversely, India’s table tennis teams were eliminated from the team event, karate competitor Alisha Choudhary exited in the round of 16, and fencers Taniksha Khatri and Mitva Chaudhari were both eliminated in their individual epee campaigns.
The men’s kabaddi side maintained an unbeaten start to the group stage with a 63-31 victory over South Korea. Japan recorded one of its strongest days, taking gold in swimming and karate on Day 3: 17-year-old Shin Ohashi shared the men’s 100m breaststroke title after clocking 58.64 in a rare dead heat with China’s Dong Zhihao, and Kakeru Nishiyama retained the men’s individual kata crown for a third straight edition.
Japan also earned silver in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay behind China despite setting a national record, and Mio Narita won bronze in the women’s 200m individual medley. China claimed the triathlon mixed relay gold with Japan second; Kazakhstan and South Korea are level on gold medals though South Korea leads on overall count, and Thailand, with four golds, remains inside the top five.
India moved up from 12th to 8th in the overall standings after Day 3 but, the report notes, a lot more work has to be done if the country wishes to break into the top four. China lead the medal table with 32 gold, 13 silver, and 8 bronze (53 total), having crossed the 50‑medal mark.
