Sawan Barwal wins Asian Games marathon silver in Aichi-Nagoya, ends 44-year Indian drought
Sawan Barwal claimed the silver medal in the men's marathon at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Saturday, crossing the line in 2:11:37 and ending India's 44-year wait for an Asian Games marathon medal. His time in Aichi-Nagoya improved the national record he had set earlier this year.
Japan's Ichitaka Yamashita took gold in 2:10:49 and China's Feng Peiyou finished third in 2:12:13, completing the podium in the Aichi-Nagoya marathon. Barwal's silver makes him only the fourth Indian to medal in the Asian Games men's marathon, joining Chhota Singh, Surat Singh Mathur and Hosur Kukkappa Seetharam.
The three previous Indian marathon medallists and their recorded times are Chhota Singh, who won gold at the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi in 2:42:58.6; Surat Singh Mathur, who took bronze at the same 1951 edition in 2:53:49.8; and HK Seetharam, who won bronze in 1982 in New Delhi in 2:25:07. Between Seetharam’s 1982 bronze and Barwal’s silver in Aichi-Nagoya, India waited 44 years for another men's marathon medal at the Asian Games.
Barwal hails from Radabhanker village in Joginder Nagar, in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district and was born on 18 February 1998. He serves in the Indian Army Engineering Corps and began his running career as a half-marathon specialist before moving up to the full marathon on his mentor’s recommendation.
His first marathon outing came at the Rotterdam Marathon on 12 April 2026, where he ran 2:11:58 to break Shivnath Singh’s 48-year-old national record of 2:12:00 set in 1978. During that race he fell around 150 metres from the finish, recovered and still finished 20th overall while setting the new national mark.
Earlier career performances cited in his progression include a national half-marathon record of 1:02 set in Delhi in 2024 and a gold in the 10,000m at the National Federation Senior Athletics Championships in Kochi in April 2025, where he established a meet record. That Kochi performance earned him selection for the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.
Barwal's 2:11:37 in Aichi-Nagoya lowered the national marathon record he had set in Rotterdam (2:11:58) and secured India a silver medal on the Asian Games marathon podium behind Yamashita and ahead of Feng. This silver is India’s first men's marathon medal at the Asian Games since HK Seetharam’s bronze in 1982.
