Sarvesh Kushare missed gold in high jump by countback at the Asian Games, while fellow Indian Ancy Sojan secured silver in long jump.

Updated on: Sep 27, 2026, 22:59:53 IST

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New Delhi: Sarvesh Anil Kushare came agonisingly close to winning the gold medal but lost the high jump final on countback to Fu Chao-hsuan of Chinese Taipei. That summed up India’s frustrating day in track and field after another gold medal contender Ancy Sojan also settled for silver in the long jump, after she was surpassed by China’s Huang Yingying in the sixth and final jump (6.55m to 6.53m) at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

Both Kushare and Fu cleared 2.25m, but Fu did it on his first attempt and Kushare on his second, which decided the eventual winner. At the Glasgow CWG too Kushare missed the gold by a whisker, losing on countback to Jamaica’s Romaine Beckford over the same height.

Still, it was quite an achievement for Kushare to finish ahead of South Korea’s Woo Sanghyeok, the most accomplished jumper in the field with two World Championships silver medals and a Diamond League Final title. Woo took bronze with a jump of 2.22m.

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For Kushare, who has been showing steady improvement, the medal means a lot. This is his first Asian Games medal, after finishing fourth in 2023 Hangzhou. He has been one of India’s most consistent athletes over the last few years. He set the national record of 2.31m at the National Inter-State Meet this year, reached the World Championships final – he finished joint sixth with a jump of 2.28m – took bronze at the Commonwealth Games and finished third in the Monaco Diamond League this season.

“This medal means a lot to me because such Games come after four years. You never know what happens in four years,” Kushare was quoted as saying by PTI in Nagoya. “I also won silver in Glasgow (CWG), so I wanted to win gold here. But I am satisfied with the medal that has come. It will give me confidence going ahead.”

Tejaswin Shankar added a bronze in decathlon after a stupendous effort over two days and 10 disciplines. Shankar had won silver at the previous Games. The fight was always among the season’s top three — Japan’s Yuma Maruyama, China’s Chen Xinghua and Shankar — in that order.

After the first day of five events, Shankar was ahead of Chen by 88 points and Maruyama by 150. Maruyama bounced back on Sunday, finishing on top in the 110m hurdles, discus and pole vault. Shankar slipped in the standings in discus, where he finished seventh, and pole vault (eighth), which are not his strongest events. He came back strongly in the 1500m and won it, eventually finishing third with 7,934 points.

The competition, however, was tougher and closer, and it showed in the overall scores. Maruyama, bronze medallist in the previous edition, aggregated 8,123 points for gold, while Chen took silver (8,012 pts). Shankar’s score was much better than his 7,666 points in Hangzhou, which had fetched him silver. Not to forget, Shankar was competing in back-to-back major championships, having won bronze at the CWG in August.

“It was more of losing a silver than winning a bronze,” Tejaswin said. “I did four decathlons this year. I’ve been going on since 30th of January but not blaming anybody. I had to do it and I needed to get that performance,” he said. His national record of 8,057 points also came this year at the Inter-State meet in Ranchi.

Parul Chaudhary also delivered a good performance, clocking 9:08.67 to better her national record and take bronze in the women’s 3000m steeplechase. She had won silver in Hangzhou.

In the women’s 200m, Harita Bhadra claimed bronze. She did well to edge past Japan’s Ido Abigeirufula at the finish line. She clocked 23.20secs, just ahead of the Japanese’s 23.21secs. Singapore’s Shanti Pereira won her second successive gold in the event with a brilliant run, recording a season’s best of 22.78secs. She had a fine start, was ahead coming off the bend and powered through the final 30m. China’s Chen Yujie, the 17-year-old who won the 100m, took silver in 22.93secs. The second Indian in the fray, Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland, finished sixth (23.46secs).

In long jump, Murali Sreeshankar qualified for the final with a jump of 7.84m. Uzbekistan’s Anvar Anvarov was the only jumper to touch the 8m mark in qualification. David Solomon, India’s late inclusion, also qualified, after a 7.62m effort. Sreeshankar, who has an Asian-leading season’s best of 8.38m, is a strong contender. China’s Yuan Chenlong (SB: 8.33m), Japan’s Yuki Hashioka (SB: 8.22m) and Anvarov (SB: 8.29m) make for an exciting long jump final field on Monday.

In the women’s marathon race walk, Priyanka Goswami was disqualified after receiving four cards for loss of contact and knee flexion, after just 9km. Manju Rani finished sixth with a time of 3:40:17.

In the men’s 200m final, Animesh Kujur finished fifth (20.80secs). Thailand’s Puripol Boonson blazed to a sprint double with a brilliant 19.88secs, equalling the Asian record. The 20-year-old Boonson won the 100m in 9.90secs. T Santhosh Kumar qualified for the 400m hurdles final, clocking 49.61sec in his heat and progressing as the fastest loser.

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