Asian Games: Lone gold and sporadic bright streaks in athletics

Mumbai: As India’s women 4x400m relay quartet of Kiran Pahal, M R Poovamma, Prachi Chaudhary and Vithya Ramraj celebrated, there was a collective sigh of relief for the country’s athletics fraternity and fans. It took the second last event on the roster for India to finally earn a gold medal in athletics at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The last event too brought a lot of hope in rainy Nagoya. The men’s 4x400m relay team were, after all, defending champions. But with a time of 3:01.61 minutes at the Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium, the team only managed a bronze. The timings of winners Japan (3:00.75) and second-placed Qatar (3:00.93) showed the Indian quartet lagged well behind.

In many ways, that final race was symbolic of India’s athletic endeavours in Aich-Nagoya, after the previous edition in Hangzhou where India bagged their best ever medal haul. Three years ago, India’s target was to cross 100 medals. India finished with 106, and athletics delivered the lion’s share, 29 medals (6 gold, 14 silver, 9 bronze).

This time, the numbers have not just declined – 24 medals (1gold, 9 silver, 14 bronze), the glaring difference is the gold and silver medal count, which pushed India to sixth in the athletics table.

The tally is usually the barometer of success at international meets. By that count, this was a disappointing campaign. The lone gold is the fewest India have won since the 2006 Asian Games.

India hasn’t been able to build on the achievements in Hangzhou. At the 2026 Games in Aichi-Nagoya, India had 72 entries in athletics, the returns only one-third of the total number.

Amidst the disappointment, there were some who raised the bar.

There were difficult weather conditions to deal with. There were unexpected injuries too – triple jumper and Hangzhou bronze medallist Praveen Chithravel pulled out injured without registering a jump.

The 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji has also struggled due to injury in the last two years. There were questions about her fitness heading to Games after she did not compete in the final domestic meet in Delhi, which was to assess the fitness and form of the athletes. The middle distance runners were a big letdown, Gulveer Singh’s 1,500m silver the saving grace in that section.

Shaili Singh was pushed to fourth in women’s long jump. Bizarrely, her ponytail allegedly triggered a shorter distance after her coaches felt it was not measured properly.

Amid the disappointments, 12 athletes registered personal bests, although not all translated into medals. This included Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland, who clocked her best of 23.33secs in women’s 200m heats but finished sixth in the final at 23.46secs.

Parul Chaudhary in women’s 1,500m finished fourth with a personal best of 4 mins, 09.46secs, Anu Raghavan clocked 55.88secs to finish fifth in the 400m hurdles final. The 3,000m steeplechase runner Ankita Dhyani (9:19.24, 4th), discus thrower Seema Kaliramna (4th, 59.88m) and Tanya Chaudhary in women’s hammer (4th, 65.35m) also set personal bests, while pole vaulter Dev Meena bettered his national record, but was still placed seventh on a countback after he and two others cleared the same 5.50m.

Some personal bests did result in medal-winning performances.

In men’s javelin, which took place in pouring rain, Yashvir Singh threw a personal best of 85.72m to take silver, behind Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage.

Parul Chaudhary in steeplechase bettered her own national record to claim bronze at 9.08.67mins, and again battled to bronze in 5,000m.

Marathon runner Sawan Barwal was brilliant, bettering his own national record to claim the silver medal, having improved upon Shivnath Singh’s 48-year-old record only in April.

Last week, he clocked 2 hours,11 min, 37secs, becoming only the fourth Indian to win an Asian Games marathon medal – and the first in 44 years.

And then there was Vithya Ramraj, who ran a sensational final leg in the victorious 4x400m women’s relay team. She had broken PT Usha’s 42-year-old record while claiming bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles clocking 54.75secs.

The mixed 4x100m relay team also set a national record while claiming bronze at 41.06secs.

At Hangzhou, only Tejaswin Shankar (decathlon) and the men’s 4x400m relay team set national records. This time, five new marks were set.

Although medals in athletics is not always straightforward, especially when pitted against African-origin rivals mostly running for their adopted country Bahrain.

However, the spate of injuries and drop in their own level exposed a number of athletes. For example, the two 800m competitors—Mohammed Afsal (1:48.27) and Pooja (2:06.72)—did not even put up a fight.