Athletics at Asian Games 2026: Selection questions steal spotlight from medallists Barwal, Toor, Prachi
Sawan Barwal broke the national record to win silver in the men’s marathon, while Tajinderpal Singh Toor settled for silver in the men’s shot put. Prachi Choudhary was a surprise medalist, finishing third in the women’s 400m. | Photo Credit: PTI/AP/PTI
Sawan Barwal broke the national record to win silver in the men’s marathon, while Tajinderpal Singh Toor settled for silver in the men’s shot put. Prachi Choudhary was a surprise medalist, finishing third in the women’s 400m. | Photo Credit: PTI/AP/PTI
A day that began with the longest competitive distance in athletics producing one of the most precious medals for India ended with questions around selections and accountability of absentee athletes that overshadowed the impressive performances from those who did turn up to do their best.
Saturday morning at the Asian Games saw Sawan Barwal, a man who started running marathons only a year ago, break not only his own national record by an incredible 21 seconds but also win India’s first Games silver in the event in 44 years. He had already broken one of the longest-standing records in Indian athletics, Shivnath Singh’s 1978 marathon timing of 2:12:00 by running 2:11:58, in April this year. More importantly, this is only the fourth Indian AG medal in marathon and the first outside India.
It had not been easy for the 5k/10k runner to switch to road races, but Barwal clearly knew what he was capable of. Staying steady with the leading pack but not going too aggressive, Sawan stayed within striking distance and, for a while, looked like he could go all the way before Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita edged ahead in the home stretch.
In the evening, Tajinderpal Singh Toor failed to complete his hat-trick of Asian Games gold medals, settling for silver at the Paloma Mizuho athletics stadium here on Saturday in incessant rain and cold weather that tested every athlete both on the track and the field.
Toor threw a best of 20.64m on his fifth attempt but couldn’t beat Iran’s Mohammadreza Tayebise, who set a new Games record of 20.81m to take the top spot. Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Tolu, who briefly took second, finished third. Karanveer Singh finished a disappointing 10th with 18.40m. Prachi Choudhary was a surprise medalist, finishing third in the 400m in 53.21 seconds but the rest disappointed.
Karthik Unnikrishnan was sixth in triple jump (16.02m), Kiran was fourth in the 400m (53.41s). Vishal T.K. placed fifth among the men (45.48s) and Parul Chaudhary, despite a personal best of 4:09.46, could only manage fourth place in the 1500m. Tejaswin Shankar, meanwhile, was leading the decathlon charts with 4338 points after five events.
But eyebrows were raised when Jyothi Yarraji, silver medalist in the 100m hurdles last time around, and national record holder triple jumper Praveen Chithravel both pulled out of competition. Both of them, along with high jumper Sarvesh Kushare, had submitted medical certificates assuring complete fitness before being cleared at the last minute.
Published on Sep 26, 2026
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