Of the 28 golds India defended in Japan this time, only eight came back.

Updated on: Oct 4, 2026, 11:20:01 IST

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At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, India scripted its best-ever show — 106 medals, with 28 golds and a lot of chatter about the arrival of a sporting nation. Three years hence, India capped off the Aichi-Nagoya edition with 85 medals — their second-best performance at the Asiad — comprising 21 golds. That's fewer in number, and strikingly, with a new cast of champions. Of the 28 golds India defended in Japan this time, only eight came back.

The Indian cricket and kabaddi teams — men and women — the men's hockey team, and three compound team events — men's, women's, and mixed — successfully defended India's gold at the 2026 Asian Games. And those eight golds were rather routine wins for India, anything less than which would have been an absolute shocker.

India is the Asian champion in cricket across both categories and returned with a second consecutive gold. In fact, in the men's division, India were the only side to land in the Japanese city with a full-strength T20 squad. In hockey, the Indian men's team finished top of the podium in two of the previous three editions, and with the overall standard of hockey in Asia falling well behind the world level, as seen in the recent World Cup, Harmanpreet Singh's side cruised to a comfortable win, without a drop of sweat — albeit in the semifinal against Pakistan, when defensive lapses allowed their rivals to storm back and level at 3-3 in the third quarter.

Deep Dive

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In kabaddi, India has been the undisputed champion in both the men's and women's events in Asia. And in compound archery, India looked at home defending the men's, women's and mixed team golds, having been a dominant force in the events since their introduction at the 2014 Games.

The Great Gold Handover — Snapshot

Asian Games 2022 → 2026

The Great Gold Exchange, at a glance

8 / 28
Golds defended

21
Total golds, 2026 (vs 28 in 2022)

0 / 13
Solo & pair golds defended

29%
defended

8 retained

Cricket (M & W), hockey (M), kabaddi (M & W), compound archery's three team formats

20 lost

Across shooting, athletics, tennis, badminton, squash and archery's individual events

Team-format events (15 of 2022's 28 golds)8/15 · 53%

Cricket, hockey, kabaddi, archery team events, squash men's team, equestrian team, shooting team events

Solo & pair events (13 of 2022's 28 golds)0/13 · 0%

Every gold India won was won by a team in which even personnel rotation did not affect the core unit. In fact, India won 15 team golds in 2023, of which eight were retained. What remains are solo or pair events — 13 in all — where India could not defend the crown. Neeraj Chopra's javelin, Avinash Sable's steeplechase, Tajinderpal Singh Toor's hat-trick bid, both individual shooting golds, the badminton and tennis and squash pairs, and both individual compound archery crowns — all gone, every one of them.

Of the total 20 gold medals India could not defend, nine were near misses. Tajinderpal lost out on a gold hat-trick by 17 centimetres to a Games-record Iranian shot-put throw. The men's 10m air rifle and 50m rifle 3-position teams were beaten by close margins to finish with silver. In men's javelin, Neeraj did not travel to Japan owing to an injury, but Yashvir Singh, who won the Commonwealth Games bronze in July, led India's hopes. His first attempt of 83.56m kept him in the gold-medal spot until eventual champion Rumesh Pathirage hurled an 88.33m throw on his third attempt, before bettering it to 88.56m on his final throw.

India's 2022 Golds vs 2026 — Full List

Event	2022 gold medallist(s)	Defended?	2026 team members
Shooting — M 10m air rifle team	Panwar, Tomar, Patil	No	Rudrankksh Patil, Himanshu Dhillon, Parth Mane
Cricket — Women's T20	Team India	Yes	Team India
Equestrian — Team dressage	Agarwalla, D. Singh, Chheda, Hajela	No	Shruti Vora, Hriday Chheda, Jai Sud
Shooting — W 25m pistol team	E. Singh, Sangwan, Bhaker	No	Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh, Rahi Sarnobat
Shooting — W 50m rifle 3P individual	Sift Kaur Samra	No	Tilottama Sen
Shooting — M 10m air pistol team	Cheema, Sarabjot, Narwal	No	Kamaljeet, Kedarling Balakrishna, Aakash Bhardwaj
Shooting — M 50m rifle 3P team	Tomar, Kusale, Sheoran	No	Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Tomar, Niraj Kumar
Shooting — W 10m air pistol individual	Palak Gulia	No	Manu Bhaker
Tennis — Mixed doubles	Bopanna, Bhosale	No	Yuki Bhambri, Rutuja Bhosale
Squash — Men's team	Ghosal, Mangaonkar, A. Singh, Sandhu	No	Abhay Singh, Veer Chotrani, Velavan Senthilkumar
Shooting — M trap team	Chenai, Z. Singh, Tondaiman	No	Kynan Chenai, Shapath Bharadwaj, Ahvar Rizvi
Athletics — M 3000m steeplechase	Avinash Sable	No	Avinash Sable
Athletics — M shot put	Tajinderpal Singh Toor	No	Tajinderpal Singh Toor
Athletics — W 5000m	Parul Chaudhary	No	Parul Chaudhary
Athletics — W javelin	Annu Rani	No	No Indian entrant
Archery — Mixed team compound	India's compound pair	Yes	Chikitha Taniparthi, Sahil Jadhav
Athletics — M javelin	Neeraj Chopra	No	Yashvir Singh, Rohit Yadav (Chopra injured, did not compete)
Athletics — M 4x400m relay	Jacob, Anas, Ramesh, Ajmal	No	Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil, Jay Kumar, Vishal Thennarasu
Archery — W team compound	Surekha, Swami, Kaur	Yes	Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep, Chikitha Taniparthi
Squash — Mixed doubles	Sandhu, Pallikal	No	Joshna Chinappa, Velavan Senthilkumar
Archery — M team compound	Verma, Jawkar, Deotale	Yes	Sahil Jadhav, Ganesh Mani Ratnam, Kushal Dalal
Hockey — Men's team	Team India	Yes	Team India
Archery — W compound individual	Jyothi Surekha	No	Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha Taniparthi
Archery — M compound individual	Ojas Deotale	No	Ganesh Mani Ratnam, Sahil Jadhav
Kabaddi — Women's team	Team India	Yes	Team India
Badminton — M doubles	Satwik-Chirag	No	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty
Cricket — Men's T20	Team India	Yes	Team India
Kabaddi — Men's team	Team India	Yes	Team India

Among the collapses, the most shocking was Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty being bounced out in the first round of men's doubles, losing to a pair ranked 36 places below them. The other came in archery, where defending champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost to a 14-year-old South Korean in the Round of 16 of the individual compound archery event.

What's next: the 13 new golds

Of the 21 gold medals that India won in Aichi-Nagoya, 13 came from fresh champions, leaving India with hope as it looks towards the Los Angeles-adjacent cycles and the next Asian Games.

13 New Golds — 2030 Outlook

New 2026 gold	Athlete(s)
Boxing, women's 75kg	Lovlina Borgohain
Wrestling, men's 57kg freestyle	Aman Sehrawat
Athletics, women's 4x400m relay	Pahal, Poovamma, Choudhary, Ramraj
Hockey, women's team	Team India
Archery, women's team recurve	Bhakat, Mohod, Sharma
Archery, women's individual recurve	Kumkum Mohod
Wrestling, men's 65kg freestyle	Sujeet Kalkal
Boxing, women's 65kg	Parveen Hooda
Boxing, men's 80kg	Ankush Panghal
Shooting, mixed team 10m air pistol	Kamaljeet, Suruchi Singh
Shooting, mixed team trap	Kynan Chenai, Neeru Dhanda
Shooting, women's trap (individual)	Neeru Dhanda
Golf, women's individual	Pranavi Urs

Eight of them were individual hauls — the most notable of those being 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod ending South Korea's reign in women's recurve individual. Neeru Dhanda — the first individual gold medallist for India at these Asian Games — was also the first Indian woman ever to win the women's trap gold.

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