India had one of its busiest days at the 2026 Asian Games on Saturday, adding seven medals to its tally, with the kabaddi teams delivering the biggest highlights by defending their respective titles. The men beat Iran 40-34 in the final, while the women edged the same opponents 37-34 to complete a gold-medal double. The men's victory marked India's ninth Asian Games kabaddi gold, while the women's triumph was their fourth.
The seven-medal haul also featured silver medals for marathon runner Sawan Barwal, shot-putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor and India's women's 50m rifle 3 positions team, along with bronze medals for 400m runner Prachi Choudhary and the squash mixed-doubles pair of Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar. India's overall tally rose to 30 medals — four gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze.
Sawan Barwal scripts marathon milestone
Sawan Barwal produced one of the day's biggest surprises, winning silver in the men's marathon and breaking his own national record.
The 28-year-old Armyman from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, clocked 2:11:37 over 42.195km to finish behind Japan's Ichitaka Yamashita, who won gold in 2:10:49. China's Peiyou Feng took bronze in 2:12:13.
Barwal's silver was India's first Asian Games marathon medal since Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan's bronze at the 1982 New Delhi Games. He also became only the fourth Indian marathon runner to win an Asian Games medal.
India's earlier marathon medallists were Chhota Singh, who won gold, and Surat Singh Mathur, who took bronze at the inaugural 1951 Asian Games, followed by Seetharan's bronze in 1982.
Kabaddi delivers double gold
India's kabaddi campaign ended with both teams at the top of the podium, although neither final was an easy contest.
The women's team held off Iran 37-34 before the men followed with a 40-34 victory over the same opponents. The men's gold was India's ninth in Asian Games kabaddi, while the women's team successfully defended the title they won at Hangzhou.
The two victories accounted for India's only gold medals of the day and significantly boosted the country's medal tally.
Shooting, athletics add three medals
At the shooting range, Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa Vinod and Ashi Chouksey won silver in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions team event. The Indian trio scored 1,763 points, finishing behind China, which set a Games Record of 1,773 for gold. Kazakhstan won bronze with 1,754.
Tilottama and Vidarsa also made the individual final but narrowly missed out on medals, finishing fourth and fifth.
In athletics, Prachi Choudhary won bronze in the women's 400m after clocking 53.21 seconds. Bahrain's Salwa Naser took gold in a Games Record 49.20 seconds, while Iran's Zahra Zarei Manoujan won silver in 52.38 seconds.
Tajinderpal Singh Toor, meanwhile, had to settle for silver in the men's shot put. His best throw of 20.64m was below his personal best of 21.77m. Iran's Mohammadreza Tayebise won gold with a Games Record 20.81m, surpassing Toor's previous Games mark of 20.75m.
Anahat, Abhay keep squash gold hopes alive
India's squash campaign received another boost as Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh reached their respective singles finals.
Anahat, 18, produced a major comeback against Japan's world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe, recovering from 0-2 down to win 9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3.
Abhay then defeated Pakistan's Muhammad Irfan 11-3, 12-10, 11-6 to book his place in the men's final.
A gold for either Indian would also bring the prospect of qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where squash is set to make its Olympic debut.
Earlier, Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar secured bronze in mixed doubles after losing 1-2 to Hong Kong's Tang Ming Hong and Lee Ka Yi.
Hockey and archery bring more positives
The Indian men's hockey team booked a place in the semifinals after beating Japan 2-0 in its penultimate pool match.
India also made a strong start to its archery campaign, with Dhiraj Bommadevara topping the men's recurve individual qualification with 698 points to set a new Asian Games qualification record. Chikitha Taniparthi led the women's compound qualification with 705 points.
India also finished first in the compound mixed-team qualification.
Unnati shines as badminton delivers mixed results
Young shuttler Unnati Hooda was among India's standout performers in badminton, winning two matches to reach the women's singles quarterfinals.
The 19-year-old first beat Malaysia's Ling Ching Wong 21-14, 20-22, 21-19 before defeating Indonesia's world No. 6 Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-19, 21-13. She will face Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also advanced after beating Japan's world No. 3 pair Mayu Matsumoto and Yuki Fukushima 24-22, 21-18.
Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty, however, were knocked out.
India's table tennis campaign ended without another medal after Manush Shah and Yashaswini Ghorpade lost their respective singles pre-quarterfinals. India finished with one table tennis medal — the mixed-doubles bronze won by Manush and Diya Chitale.
The day also brought limited returns for India in esports, fencing and canoeing.
