Asian Games 2026: Two silvers won, two gold medals lost at Athletics

Both Sarvesh Kushare and Ancy Sojan can’t quite explain why they fell short of a dream ending. They just know that India’s wait for an athletics gold at these Asian Games will continue into another day.  | Photo Credit: REUTERS/R.V. Moorthy

At the end of the women’s long jump final at the Paloma Mizuho Stadium on Sunday evening, Ancy Sojan looked at China’s Huang Yingying like a traveller at Nagoya Central Station watching someone cut the queue.

Hands on her head, the Indian glared across at Huang. There was anger in that stare. And some very obvious envy.

The Chinese was oblivious, as she celebrated winning gold with her teammate Mengyi Tan who had won bronze.

Only minutes earlier, that gold had belonged to Ancy. For most of a damp evening in Nagoya, she had led the competition. With one jump remaining, she was still on course to become the first Indian woman since Anju Bobby George in 2002 to win the Asian Games long jump title.

Then Huang jumped 6.55m with her final attempt.

— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) September 27, 2026

Ancy had one chance to take the gold back. But she took off well behind the board and landed at 6.49m.

The gold was gone.

Instead of ending a 24-year wait, Ancy had repeated the silver she had won three years ago in Hangzhou. A little later, Sarvesh Kushare, too, would discover just how quickly gold can disappear.

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“I’m happy to become a two-time Asian Games medallist. But I’m disappointed that the gold medal slipped out of my hands,” Ancy said later.

That gold was indeed hers to lose. Just a couple of months back, Ancy had leaped 6.88m, to break Anju Bobby George’s 22-year-old record in the women’s long jump. She had spoken of targetting 7m.

She probably didn’t have to jump anywhere near that at Nagoya, where the next best season’s best by any of her competitors – Huang as it turned out -- was 12 cm shorter. Sumire Hata, who had won gold at Hangzhou, was nearly half a meter behind (6.44m).

In drizzly evening conditions, the track was moist and the air was cool, which posed challenges to both running in and staying warmed up. But Ancy was still confident. She began with a jump of 6.49m. It wasn’t anywhere near her best but, with everyone struggling in the environments, it seemed likely to be enough.

For four attempts, no one surpassed that mark. In the fifth, Huang equalled it although Ancy still led courtesy a better second-best jump. As the last series of attempts were made, it seemed the gold was Ancy’s. Tan made a jump of 6.46m that pipped the other Indian — Shaili Singh — to the podium but which still left Ancy in the lead.

Then in her very last attempt of the evening, Huang made her best effort. Watching along on the big screen in the stadium, Ancy hoped against hope.

“In that last moment, I was still in gold medal position, I was praying, God, oh my God, please don’t let me down,” she recalled.

It was not to be. Yingying jumped and although Ancy felt she was just short, the mark in the sand was measured at 6.55m.

It should still have not challenged Ancy, considering this isn’t something that she’d even sweated over the entire season. But on a rainy Sunday night in Nagoya, she couldn’t get that one jump she needed. She took off well short of the takeoff board. Her jump was measured at 6.49m. There went the top step of the podium.

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It was a similar story for Kushare. He had come into the competition on the back of a Commonwealth Games silver and personal best and national record jump of 2.31m in the same competition where Ancy had broken Anju’s record a few months ago.

He was even boosted by the fact that four-time Olympic medallist Mutaz Barshim had withdrawn from the competition. Barshim’s withdrawal meant that there was no one in the field at Nagoya who had jumped further than Kusare this year. Woo Sanghyeok was a potential threat but the Korean had been battling injuries this season.

— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) September 27, 2026

If Ancy had felt the conditions made it hard for her, Kushare didn’t even say that. “It was the same for everyone,” he’d say later.

Until the 2.22m mark, it was Kushare in the lead. The mark then went to 2.25m where he missed his first attempt with the bar clattering off his hips. Chao-hsuan Fu of Chinese Taipei, who only had a best of 2.25m this season, managed to clear it in his first attempt. And just like that, the lead slipped from the Indian’s hands.

Kushare had the chance to reclaim it with the bar set at 2.28m, a height he’s gone past three times this season compared to none in the Chinese Taipei athlete’s career. But the winning jump never came. Three attempts were made by both athletes. All failed but Chao-hsuan won by virtue of needing few attempts to clear 2.25m.

It wasn’t the ending he expected just as it wasn’t for Ancy earlier in the evening. For now neither know why. They just know that India’s wait for an athletics gold at these Asian Games will continue into another day.

“I was fully confident, I could beat her (Huang). I know I can beat her any other day. But I don’t know, something happened. But fate is different, today is not my day,” Ancy said

Published on Sep 27, 2026

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