Sawan Barwal wins silver in Asian Games men's marathon, sets national record
Sawan Barwal won the silver medal in the men's marathon at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya on September 26, 2026, finishing behind Japan's Ichitaka Yamashita at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.
Barwal, a 28-year-old Army man from Himachal Pradesh, completed the 42.195km in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 37 seconds, lowering his own national record in the process; his silver is India's first Asian Games marathon medal since Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan's bronze in 1982 and makes Barwal only the fourth Indian ever to win an Asian Games athletics medal, after Chhota Singh and Surat Singh Mathur in 1951. He shifted to the marathon this year after racing 5,000m, 10,000m and the half marathon, and this marked his second national record in as many races after he broke Shivnath Singh's 48-year-old mark in April at the NN Marathon, Rotterdam, with a time of 2:11:58.
The race was contested in mild conditions, with organisers reporting a temperature of 21 degree celsius and intermittent wind and drizzle. Barwal led the pack for stretches and had moved up to second place at the halfway mark with a split of 1:05:54. The leading group thinned as the race progressed, with only the front three remaining together after the 35km point.
Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita took gold in 2:10:49, while China’s Peiyou Feng secured bronze in 2:12:13. The closing stages separated the medal positions as the frontrunners contended with the faster pace and changing conditions.
Reflecting after the race, Barwal said: “The way I trained, the target was to finish with a medal, not to better my national record. But it was also a national record. I am very happy to have won a medal for the country, that too after a long time (1982),” Barwal told PTI after the gruelling race. He also described his race plan in detail: “My target was to finish in the first group up to 39-40 km. So, I was in the first group and decided to finish in the last 1-2 km. I tried to stay with the group. In the last 38-37 km, there were just three runners. Around 37 km, the third one (runner) fell behind,” he said .“I tried to maintain the same pace. So, in the last 39-37 km, the Japanese were ahead. But the pace was fast, so I tried to keep up with my comfortable pace.”
Barwal hails from Joginder Nagar in Mandi district; his father Kuldeep worked as a driver in New Delhi and his mother Subhadra Devi is a homemaker. He was introduced to running after watching his elder brother on the school track and was put into 1,500m training at 14, made his national-level debut in the U18 3,000m in 2015, ran his first senior race in the 2021 Federation Cup (5,000m), won both the 5,000m and 10,000m gold at the 2025 National Games in Dehradun, and joined the Army in 2019 under the sports quota alongside his elder brother.
The other Indian competitor in the event, Kartik Karkera, finished 17th with a time of 2:22:41.
