Asian Games 2026: Where are India’s gold medals? And should you be worried?

Just two gold medals – one in women’s cricket and the other in 10m air pistol mixed team – has meant that the country languishes at the 12th position on the medal table at the end of competitions on 25 September. It is a sorry picture for a team, which usually tends to sit pretty on the very top half of the standings.

So naturally, questions are aplenty. Where are India’s gold medals? And with just nine more days of competition left, where will more come from?

It needs to be noted that, even pre-Asian Games, looking at the field, contingent size, and recent form of Indian athletes, Read had predicted a mark much lower than what the country had bagged at the Hangzhou Games three years ago.

The post-pandemic delayed Games in China were an outlier with 107 medals, eventually reduced to 106 after a boxer was caught in the dope net.

And with how India’s early days in shooting and rowing – two sports the country excels in – have panned out, it is even more evident that the three-figure mark will remain out of reach and so will the 28 gold medals.

The fact that India have failed to defend a few of those 28 gold medals already and you know the tally will drop.

In the grand theme of things, those three team gold medals in shooting is not something fans or shooters themselves should worry about. Those are not Olympic events and rarely does it have an impact on the long run.

But yes, if you’ve to look at it purely from the perspective of a medal tally, those are big misses. A large thanks for it also goes to China, who after a disappointing performance in front of their home crowd three years back, have bounced back to win each of those four gold medals.

It was only in women’s 10m air pistol, where India had won both a gold and a silver last edition, and the men’s 10m air pistol team event where none of Indian shooters reached final at the Aichi Prefectural Shooting Range that India should be concerned about missing the gold medals in shooting.

However, even those inhibitions were laid to rest later when a brilliant Suruchi Phogat led India to a gold in mixed 10m air pistol, where the country had a silver last year, supported ably by Kamaljeet.

This is not to say that Anantjeet Singh Naruka’s drop from an individual skeet silver to fourth and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar’s drop from silver to fifth place is not a concern.

The gold medal in Dressage team event last edition was the country’s first ever in the discipline and ended a 41-year wait. It was unexpected and the quartet of Hriday Chheda, Anush Agarwalla, Sudipti Hajela, and Divyakriti Singh rightfully made headlines.

However, heading into the 2026 Games, the backstage drama was a mess. Agarwalla and Hajela had to move court after they were included only as reserves but were shut down. Diyakriti Singh was not in the equation.

Only Chheda from that team returned and even that was clouded in controversy. His mare was first declared unfit to compete. He had alleged that the report was “engineered” to draft Agarwalla into the squad.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) intervened and eventually cleared Chheda and his mare after a secondary veterinary examination.

The biggest miss of it all, however, was the exit of the reigning champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in men’s doubles badminton. The duo had started well at the 2026 Asian Games, beating the reigning and former world champions in the quarters and semis of the team event respectively.

However, they once again fell into the trap of those fast, flat rallies to bow out once again from a major competition early on. Only that this time the opponents were not some famed pair but world No 36. A miss, which can’t be excused in any means.

Besides, in women’s javelin throw the reigning champions have no entry as the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) didn’t include Annu Rani after she failed to meet the set qualifying standard.

That’s it for the gold medals India have failed to defend so far, but where are the gold medals going to come from in the coming days?

Team sports is where you should have your eyes peeled. The two kabaddi finals on Saturday against Iran, men’s cricket team, men’s hockey team and, quite possibly, even the women’s hockey team, who have been in a stellar run since the FIH World Cup last month.

The squash men’s team event is also a good shout but in the absence of veterans Saurav Ghoshal, Mahesh Mangaonkar, and Harinder Pal Sandhu, who were a part of the gold medal winning team last edition, it remains to be seen how the younger lot led by Abhay Singh responds.

There could also be a few gold medals in the offering in athletics with Tajinderpal Singh Toor eyeing a hat-trick, Murali Sreeshankar, Praveen Chitravel, Parul Chaudhary, Gulveer Singh, and if Avinash Sable is back to his full fitness could all be genuine contenders. As will high jumpers Pooja Singh, Sarvesh Kushare, and decathlete Tejaswin Shankar.

Compound archery is one event where India had swept all five gold medals on offer last time. While that level of performance looks unlikely, there could be a couple of gold for the taking. In recurve, Dhiraj Bommadevara’s performance at the Archery World Cup Final earlier this month was an encouraging sign.

India’s wrestling campaign is yet to begin and though they’ll have to navigate strong fields, hopes can also be pinned on Aman Sehrawat (men’s 57kg) and Sujeet Kalklal (men’s 65kg) will very well be in the mix for the top spot.

So, while a Hangzhou like haul looks unlikely, India remain primed to climb back up from where they are currently placed in the Aichi-Nagoya standings.