India's Asian Games report card: top marks in the team sports, homework in athletics

By Abhinav Earnest · November 3, 2026

India finish the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya with 85 medals: 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze. That puts them fourth in the table, ahead of Uzbekistan on silver medals (27 to 25) after both nations won 21 golds.

It is India's second-best Asian Games, behind the record haul of more than 100 medals in Hangzhou. Here is how each part of the team scored.

Team sports: A+

It is hard to do better than this. India won gold in both the men's and women's competitions in cricket, hockey and kabaddi. That is six finals and six wins.

The men's cricket team beat Pakistan by 19 runs in their final. The men's hockey side defended their title by beating Malaysia 5–1.

The women's hockey team beat China 1–0, with Lalremsiami scoring the goal that ended a 44-year wait for Asian Games gold. In kabaddi, both teams beat Iran in the final: the men 40–34 for a ninth title, the women 37–34.

The hockey golds were worth even more than the medals. Both teams secured quota places for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, which means the qualification pressure is over two years early.

Archery: A

Kumkum Mohod won the women's individual recurve gold and finished with two golds and a silver. India's archers took five golds in all across the compound and recurve events, which makes this one of the team's most productive sports in Nagoya.

Shooting: A

Neeru Dhanda matched Mohod's haul with two golds and a silver. Shooting has been one of India's most dependable medal sources for years, and it delivered again.

Golf: A

Pranavi Urs won the women's individual golf gold. Golf rarely makes India's medal headlines, and this one deserves a lot more attention than it will get.

Athletics: B-

This is the most complicated grade. Athletics was India's biggest medal winner by a distance, with 24 medals. That is real depth, across many events, and athletes such as Gulveer Singh and Vithya Ramraj won multiple medals.

But only one of the 24 was gold. Kiran Pahal, Poovamma Machettira, Prachi Choudhary and Vithya Ramraj won the women's 4x400m relay in 3:29.69, with Bahrain taking silver. Every other Indian athletics medal was silver or bronze.

Reaching podiums is one skill. Winning on them is another. Turning even a few of those near-misses into golds would have moved India up the table.

Overall: B+

China (169 gold, 341 medals), hosts Japan (83 gold, 269 medals) and South Korea (39 gold, 150 medals) remain in a different tier. India are not yet close to that group, and 85 medals is a step back from Hangzhou.

But a top-four finish, a perfect record in the team sports, two Olympic hockey places and several historic firsts make this a strong Games. The homework for the next cycle is clear: keep the depth, and turn more of it into gold.