Aichi-Nagoya, September 30: India’s compound archers won two gold medals at the Asian Games 2026 on Wednesday. Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Jadhav beat South Korea in a shoot-off in the mixed team final, and the win also gives India a quota place in the compound mixed team event at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Earlier in the day, Chikitha, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Prithika Pradeep beat China 238-234 in the women’s team final. Their 238 equalled the world record held by South Korea.
The two golds take India to 54 medals at the Games: eight gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze.
Shoot-off settles mixed team final
Chikitha and Sahil opened with 40 to Korea’s 39 and won the second end by the same margin. Korea hit back, taking the third end 39-38 and the fourth 40-39, which left the scores level at 157-157.
In the shoot-off, Chikitha and Park both shot 10s, with Park’s arrow closer to the centre. Sahil also found the 10. Choi’s last arrow landed in the nine, and India had the gold 10-9.
That made it two gold medals in a day for Chikitha.
Record-equalling score in women’s final
The women’s trio led China from the first rotation and finished four points clear. China’s team was Wunier, Yue Wang and Fangyao Wei.
India reached the final by edging South Korea 234-233 in the semi-final at Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park.
It was Jyothi Surekha’s fourth Asian Games gold. Chikitha and Prithika, both making their Games debut, won their first.
India won all five compound golds at Hangzhou 2023. They have now kept two of those titles in Aichi-Nagoya, with three more still to be decided.
Women’s relay team win first athletics gold
On Tuesday, the women’s 4x400m relay team of Vithya Ramraj, Kiran Pahal, MR Poovamma and Prachi won India’s first athletics gold of these Games. They clocked 3:29.69, ahead of Bahrain (3:30.21) and China (3:31.02).
Until then, India’s golds in Aichi-Nagoya had come only in cricket, kabaddi and shooting. Tuesday also brought shooting gold for Neeru Dhanda in the women’s trap.
Vithya ran the relay a day after winning bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles on Monday, when she broke PT Usha’s national record from 1984. She had already won silver in the mixed 4x400m relay earlier in the Games.
The men’s 4x400m relay team added bronze the same evening. Dharmveer Chaudhary, Manu TS, Jay Kumar and Vishal TK ran 3:01.61, behind Japan and Qatar.
Volleyball team save nine match points to beat Qatar
India’s men’s volleyball team also had a Tuesday to remember. They came from two sets down to beat Qatar 3-2 (26-28, 25-27, 25-23, 25-20, 24-22) at Park Arena Komaki, in a match that lasted 167 minutes.
Qatar had nine match points in the deciding set. India saved every one, and Jerome Vinith hit the winning spike.
India, ranked 49th in the world to Qatar’s 43rd, finished top of Pool C with three wins and nine points. They had already beaten Vietnam 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-20) and Hong Kong, China 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-21). Qatar also go through, second on six points.
India last won an Asian Games volleyball medal in 1986, a bronze. Their other medals were bronze in 1958 and silver in 1962. At Hangzhou 2023 they finished sixth.
What comes next
The volleyball quarter-finals are on Thursday, October 1. The same day, the men’s hockey team play Pakistan in the semi-final after beating Bangladesh 10-0 to top their pool.
For Monday’s medals, including Vithya’s hurdles bronze, see our full round-up.
