India win six medals as Vithya breaks 42-year national record; relays reach finals at Asian Games 2026

India won six athletics medals at the Asian Games 2026 on Monday, with Vithya Ramraj breaking a 42-year-old national record and Indian relay teams advancing to finals.

The six medals — three silver and three bronze — came across the men’s long jump, men’s javelin throw, men’s 1500m, women’s 400m hurdles and women’s 5000m, and India also progressed in the mixed 4x100m and men’s 4x400m relays. The Day 5 haul increased India’s athletics total from 13 to 19 medals — nine silver and 10 bronze — leaving the contingent without a gold medal entering the final day.

Murali Sreeshankar won silver in the men’s long jump with a best of 8.07m as China’s Shi Yuqi took gold with 8.17m and Uzbekistan’s Anvar Anvarov claimed bronze with 8.06m. Sreeshankar produced three valid jumps, his second attempt of 8.07m proved decisive, and he suffered an injury after his fourth attempt and did not take his final two jumps.

Gulveer Singh recorded a personal best of 3:36.72 to take silver in the men’s 1500m, behind Japan’s Kazuya Iizawa who won gold in a Games Record 3:36.35, while Naoki Mori of Japan took bronze in 3:37.92. Gulveer had already won silver in the men’s 10,000m earlier in the Games and now has two individual silver medals.

India recorded a podium double in the men’s javelin throw as Yash Vir Singh won silver with a personal best of 85.72m and Rohit Yadav took bronze with 84.35m; Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage won gold with 88.55m. Yash Vir’s PB secured his first Asian Games medal and Rohit added another bronze to India’s athletics tally.

Vithya Ramraj won bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles in a personal best 54.75 seconds, breaking PT Usha’s 42-year-old national record of 55.42 seconds set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by 0.67 seconds. UAE’s Kareem M won gold in a Games Record 54.31 seconds and Kazakhstan’s Zems A took silver in 54.58; Anu Raghavan produced a personal best of 55.88 seconds to finish fifth.

Parul Chaudhary finished third in the women’s 5000m in 15:14.61 as Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won gold in 15:10.18 and Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka took silver in 15:11.65; Parul had earlier won bronze in the women’s 3000m steeplechase at these Games. Seema finished sixth in the 5000m final with 15:35.06. Separately, Seema narrowly missed out on another medal, finishing fourth with a personal best of 59.88m, and Sanya Yadav finished eighth with 49.90m.

India qualified for the mixed 4x100m relay final after finishing second in Heat 2 in 41.54 seconds, with China winning the heat in 41.52 seconds and the top three teams progressing automatically. Santhosh Tamilarasan was seventh in the men’s 400m hurdles final in 49.95 seconds as Qatar’s Abderrahman Hemeida won gold in 47.82 seconds, with Japan’s Tomoya Goto and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chengfeng completing the podium. Avinash Sable finished fourth in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in a season-best 8:21.67 as Japan’s Ryuji Miura won gold in a Games Record 8:17.36; Gowthami Jayaraman finished fourth in her heat in 2:04.31 and Pooja progressed from Heat 2 to the final. India were fourth in the women’s 4x100m relay final in a season best 43.57 seconds as China won gold in 42.96 seconds, with Thailand and Japan second and third. India won Heat 2 of the men’s 4x400m relay in 3:01.49 to qualify for the final; Qatar and China also advanced automatically while Thailand and Korea qualified as the next two fastest teams.

The final day of athletics will feature nine medal events, with Indian entries including Kuldeep Kumar and Dev Meena in the men’s pole vault; Pooja Singh and Supriya Sindigere Basavaraju in the women’s high jump; Tanya Chaudhary and Anushka Yadav in the women’s hammer throw; Pooja in the women’s 800m final and Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath in the men’s 800m final; Gulveer Singh and Avinash Sable listed for the men’s 5000m final; and India competing in the mixed 4x100m, women’s 4x400m and men’s 4x400m relay finals.