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Accepting that even India’s best-ever showing in women’s air rifle, Elavenil’s silver, might not be good enough for gold is central to understanding why the country was stuck at just four the first week, reaching double digits (10) only on the 11th day of the Games.

The ultimate tally of 21 was seven off the 2023 Asiad with 28 gold, while total medal haul was 21 less than the 106 at Hangzhou.

The drop has come in several sports: Shooting (22 to 15; 4 golds less), Athletics (29 to 24; 5 gold less), Tennis (2 to 0; 1 gold less), Badminton (3 to 1; 1 gold less); Rowing (6 to 1); Equestrian (2 to 0; 1 gold less).

India’s Tejaswin Shankar won bronze in the decathlon event at the 2026 Asian Games.

While archery made fantastic gains in recurve, its total count stayed constant at nine from 2023, with five gold medals, the same as last time. Squash retained its five medals, but with a significant drop of two gold.

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Wrestling has maintained its count of six. While men added two gold to the nil last time, and won five of the six Indian medals, women’s wrestling dropped from three last time to the one silver upgrade of Antim Panghal. Sujeet Kalkal and Aman Sehrawat will be expected to carry the momentum to Los Angeles.

Boxing made real gains, going up from five to six medals – and significantly three gold from none last time.

The golf gold for Pranavi Urs is an uptick, as is the women’s team silver.

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However, a few medal drops are worrying. In badminton, Lakshya Sen could not defend HS Prannoy bronze while Ayush Shetty had a poor Games. Asiad medals are toughest in badminton, and Satwik-Chirag gold was missing in the 2026 tally.

India’s Lakshya Sen in action during his men’s team quarter final match against Japans Kodai Naraoka.

Shooting sent a star-studded women’s air pistol troika, but a medal was nowhere in sight after poor qualifications. While Suruchi Phogat salvaged matters with a strong comeback for the Mixed Team gold and Esha Singh fought four shoot-offs to take sports pistol silver, individual golds were out of reach till Neeru Dhanda won in trap. India had regressed in 50m 3 position since the Paris Olympics, with two silvers in the event, while they had won two gold in Hangzhou, among other medals.

Hits and misses

Parul Chaudhary recorded her Personal Best (PB) in 5,000m to take a second bronze. Steeplechaser Avinash Sable, defending a gold medal, did his season’s best but missed a medal by four seconds to finish fourth. The next rung in steeplechase isn’t on the horizon.

Other freakish circumstances struck. Murali Sreesankar, looking to upgrade his silver, slipped on the takeoff on his fourth attempt and was in no position to contend for gold. Two Chinese did their best in their fifth attempt to leapfrog Ancy Sojan in the long jump. The Indian could not summon a 6.60 jump, though her best this season is a national record. Hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, triple jumper Praveen Chitravel and decathlete Thowfeeq Noushad couldn’t register a mark to be in contention in their events.

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While AFI president Adille Sumariwala had stressed that the athletes would peak at the Asiad, the periodisation seemed to have gone awry as the push for the Commonwealth Games disrupted fitness for Asiad, including taking Neeraj Chopra out of contention. The two big events within two months of each other also saw some athletes bomb at both places.

In the finals, Bhaker was finding shots in the low 10s and high 9s but never into the mid 10s that are the hallmark of a form shooter

The rowing federation switched up combinations two days before the race, after crews had trained together for four years. They got an Australian expert to convey the news, and he didn’t explain why his plan for gold didn’t come through, or why the rowers were not kept in the loop. No gold fetched up either; it was chaos injected into an erstwhile well-oiled unit.

Equestrian was blighted by contested selections. A gold and bronze from Hangzhou got casually tossed out, finishing at zero.

Some losses are nuanced – could Gulveer Singh have focused on one event and gone all out for gold, instead of four races in five days, finishing with two silver and one bronze? Are double-starters in shooting (those who are fielded in two events) costing India gold?

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Track and field athletes scored 11 personal bests, nine silvers and three season’s bests. But the net result was one gold. It proves both that the competition has levelled up and Indians, even at their best, are only playing catch-up.