Sawan Barwal wins Asian Games marathon silver, India’s first medal in 44 years

India's Sawan Bawal won the country's first marathon medal at the Asian Games since 1982. (Sony LIV screengrab)

Sawan Barwal finished second in the men’s Marathon on Saturday to record India’s fourth medal in the event at the Asian Games, a first since the 1982 edition.

Sawan also lowered his own national record, clocking 2:11:36 in Aichi Nagoya. Earlier in April this year, he became the first-ever Indian to go sub-2 hours 12 minutes, lowering the 48-year-old national record of Shivnath Singh at the Rotterdam Marathon.

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Sawan, who was competing in his second marathon of the career, finished behind Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita.

29-year-old Yamashita became the seventh Japanese athlete to win the gold medal in the event and the first one to do it on the home soil after he clocked 2:10:51.

Yamashita always had the lead over Barwal and entered the stadium to a raucous support from his home crowd and finished with a gold medal.

Another Indian in the event, Kartik Karkera finished 17th with a timing of 2:22:41.

After the first five kilometers, Sawan was in the lead pack of six runners with a split timing of 15.28 secs, +0:01 seconds behind China’s Feng Peiyou, the sole leader.

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Sawan never lost the sight of the podium position throughout the race and was part of the leading pack alongside Yamashita. At the midpoint, the duo was running side by side with a timing of 01:05:54.

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Till the 35 km mark both the runners were running side by side before Sawan broke further to lead but Yamashita slowly built his lead by the 39 km mark.

At the 40 km mark, Sawan was behind Yamashita by 26 seconds and it was clear that the Japanese was going for the gold. But the Indian never lost sight of the silver medal and kept his composure to end India’s 44 year old wait for a medal in the men’s Marathon.

List of India’s marathon medallists at Asian Games

• 1951: Chhota Singh — Gold (2:42:58.6 s)
• 1951: Surat Singh Mathur — Bronze (2:53:49.8 s)
• 1982: Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan — Bronze (2:25:07 s)
• 2026: Sawan Barwal — Silver (2:11:36 s)