Asian Games: What India’s silver streak reveals about the gold gap

Mumbai: Murali Sreeshankar, India’s big long jump gold medal hope, was hobbling around on a rain-soaked Monday evening in Nagoya. Elsewhere on the track and field stadium, Rumesh Tharanga was thumping his chest after displacing an Indian not named Neeraj Chopra from the top of the javelin perch.

Hours earlier at the shooting range, pistol shooter Esha Singh fell short of the most prized medal by the barest of shoot-off margins. A day before, long jumper Ancy Sojan and high jumper Sarvesh Kushare fell short by two centimetres and a countback, respectively. Squash pros Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh fell short way farther in their respective finals.

The last couple of days, across sports and disciplines, have been somewhat of a microcosm of India’s 2026 Asian Games campaign so far. Some near-misses, crushing lows, commendable highs, and, above all, a glaring paucity: gold medals.

As the ninth day of medals events wrapped up in Japan, India had only four top podium finishes, and none in individual events.

In the Hangzhou edition three years ago, Indians collectively pulled together for a 28 yellow glitz high in that 100-plus heady medal show. Even as medals continue to tick along this time, matching that gold count, it can be safely assumed with less than a week to the finish line, will be nearly impossible.

That leaves India, currently 12th on the medals table with 45 medals (4 gold, 20 silver, 21 bronze) in danger of slipping back to continental returns from the previous decade.

From the 10 gold medals at the 2006 Doha edition came an uptick of 14 at 2010 Guangzhou. From the 11 at 2014 Incheon came a jump to 16 at 2018 Jakarta and Palembang. From the 28 at 2023 Hangzhou there is bound to be a fall at 2026 Aichi-Nagoya. The kind where reaching the 2018 gold volume will also require a big push from here.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. There’s still shots to be taken and gold medal opportunities to be seized from an Indian viewpoint. Especially in cricket (men’s) and hockey (men’s), and probably in archery, wrestling, squash and boxing. Athletics still has one day of action left, and shooting has three.

Shooting and athletics, incidentally, have witnessed the biggest drop in the gold medal pool from three years ago.

From seven top-drawer finishes then, including two in individual events, there’s been just one so far, with Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet providing the much-needed golden touch in the 10m air pistol mixed team. Track and field is still searching for its first Indian champion in Nagoya, after Hangzhou had six.

In fact, five of the six athletics gold medals by Indians have not been defended. That includes men’s javelin, in which Yashvir Singh (with a personal best throw) and Rohit Yadav combined to deliver a double podium finish for India though not a 1-2 like three years ago, and women’s javelin. Other events were men’s shot put (gold to silver for Tajinderpal Singh Toor), men’s 3000m steeplechase (gold to 4th for Avinash Sable on an injury comeback) and women’s 5000m (gold to bronze for Parul Chaudhary, who improved her national record in 3000m steeplechase). The men’s 4x400m relay is scheduled for Tuesday.

Shooting too couldn’t hold on to its golden grip from 2023, especially in the women’s pistol and men’s rifle teams that appeared strong on paper in 2026. Other sports in which India did not manage to defend gold so far include badminton (men’s doubles), squash (mixed doubles) and equestrian (team dressage).

Both the kabaddi teams and the women’s cricket team held their crowns and grabbed another gold.

That’s another facet to this current gold lull. Of the 28 gold medals in Hangzhou, nine came in individual, four in doubles/mixed and 15 in team/relay events. In Japan, the golden trickle has largely been team-driven thus far.

There have been individual feats and medals to applaud over the past week. Like Vithya Ramraj’s 400m national record and Sawan Barwal’s marathon effort, or Anahat Singh’s swift first at 18 and Mirabai Chanu’s at-long-last first at 32.

Gold medals, though, are the separating factor in the overall medals chart and the bigger picture. And it remains an area in which India will desperately seek a lift over the next few days at these Asian Games.