Asian Games 2026: India Bags Four Medals On Day 2, Shooting Leads Charge

India had a busy and eventful Day 2 at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on September 21, adding four medals to take its tally to six - four silver and two bronze. Gold continued to elude the contingent, but India produced major performances across shooting, MMA, hockey, kabaddi, badminton, table tennis, boxing and wushu.

Shooting delivered three of the four medals. Himanshu Dhillon, Rudrankksh Patil and 18-year-old Parth Mane won silver in the men's 10m air-rifle team event, while Dhillon added an individual silver and Patil took bronze. China's Sheng Lihao won the individual gold, while China's team set a new world record with 1,899 points. Shooting now accounts for five of India's six medals.

The other medal brought a historic first. Suchika Tariyal won bronze in women's traditional 60kg MMA, becoming India's first Asian Games MMA medallist. Her semifinal against Singapore's Hui Hoon Teo ended in a draw, but Tariyal missed the final because she was around 700 grams heavier than her opponent under the tie-breaking rule.

India's team sports also produced emphatic results. The women's hockey team thrashed Indonesia 17-1, while the men's and women's kabaddi teams opened with wins, defeating Japan 49-24 and Bangladesh 42-21, respectively. In badminton, India beat Bangladesh 3-0, with Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Ayush Shetty winning their singles matches.

Both Indian table-tennis teams also registered 3-0 wins over Pakistan. In boxing, Sumit Kundu defeated Thailand's Bunjong Sinsiri 5-0 in the men's 70kg category, while wushu fighters Roshibina Devi and Aryan progressed to the quarterfinals.

There were disappointments too. Srihari Nataraj finished 10th in the men's 50m backstroke final, while India's mixed-doubles soft-tennis pair Aadhya Tiwari and Jay Meena exited in the round of 16. Several Indian swimmers also failed to progress from their heats.

After two competition days, India's biggest task remains converting its strong starts into gold medals. The women's cricket final against Sri Lanka, along with shooting, wushu and continuing team events, offers fresh opportunities on Day 3.