Seema Kumari bronze and mixed 4x400m silver lift India on Day 1 at Asian Games 2026
India opened its athletics account at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya on September 24 with Seema Kumari taking bronze in the women's 10,000m and the mixed 4x400m relay team claiming silver.
Seema finished the women's 10,000m in 32:50.05 to place third behind Bahrain's Winfred Yavi (32:39.18) and Japan's Nozomi Tanaka (32:41.54), earning India’s first athletics medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games. The bronze ended a 16-year gap for India in the event since the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, and Seema entered the competition having a personal best of 32:02.43 set earlier in 2026.
The mixed 4x400m relay produced India’s second medal of the day as the team ran 3:14.46 for silver; Bahrain won gold in 3:12.87, a new Asian Games record, and Vietnam took bronze in 3:14.54. India had qualified for the final by finishing second in its heat and fourth overall in 3:16.23 and improved that time in the final to secure back-to-back Asian Games silver after the 3:14.34 performance in Hangzhou 2022, which had been a national record.
In the women's triple jump, Asha Ilango recorded a best leap of 13.83m, equalling China’s Li Yi, but lost the bronze on countback as Li’s second-best jump was 13.79m compared with Asha’s 13.65m; Asha therefore placed fourth. Niharika Vashisht produced a best of 12.60m and finished outside the medals.
Two Indian sprinters advanced from the men's 100m heats: Animesh Kujur ran 10.36 seconds to finish third in his heat and Gurindervir Singh clocked 10.38 to finish second in his heat, with both athletes securing direct qualification to the semi-finals. The men's 100m semi-finals are scheduled for September 25.
India's heptathletes Anamika K A and Pooja completed the opening day’s four events — 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m — and sit on 3,177 and 3,159 points respectively, placed seventh and ninth after those events. The heptathlon will resume on September 25 with long jump, javelin throw and the 800m deciding the final standings.
Several Indian athletes are set to contest medal events on the second day: Gulveer Singh in the men's 10,000m final; Manpreet Kaur and Krishna Jayasankar Menon in the women's shot put final; Sindhushree Ganesha and Baranica Elangovan in the women's pole vault final; and Damneet Singh and Praveen Kumar in the men's hammer throw final, while the men's and women's 400m competitions will also begin.
India finished Day 1 of athletics with one silver and one bronze, and competition continues on September 25 with the men's 100m semi-finals, the concluding three heptathlon disciplines, and multiple finals involving Indian athletes.
