Asian Games: Ancy, Kushare, Anahat, Abhay Lead India’s Seven-Medal Haul on Day 9

India won four silver medals on Day 9 of the ongoing Asian Games after Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh finished as runners-up in the men’s and women’s singles squash events, respectively. Ancy Sojan then added a silver in the women’s long jump. She was pipped by the Chinese gold medallist in her final attempt.

Harita Bhadra, 23, delivered a strong final sprint to win a bronze medal in the Women’s 200m final. Tejaswin Shankar added another bronze in the men’s decathlon.

Sarvesh Kushare won silver in the high jump final, while Parul Chaudhary won bronze with a PB in the 3000m steeplechase.

Nagoya: India’s Ancy Sojan won the women’s long jump silver medal at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday after China’s Huang Yingying produced a 6.55m effort with her final jump to edge the Indian by two centimetres in a dramatic finish at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium. Shaili Singh, who had remained in medal contention for much of the competition, finished fourth.

Ancy had put herself in the gold-medal position right from her opening attempt, clearing 6.49m. Her second jump was ruled a foul, but the opening effort was enough to keep her at the top as the competition progressed.

The result gave India silver in an event in which the country had previously won only one women’s long jump gold at the Asian Games, through Anju Bobby George in 2002.

For Ancy, the medal adds another major result to a breakthrough 2026 season in which she produced a national record of 6.88m at the World Athletics Continental Tour event in Bhubaneswar.

Sarvesh Kushare clinched the silver medal in the men’s high jump, while Parul Chaudhary secured bronze in the women’s 3000m steeplechase on Sunday.

Kushare finished on the podium with a best jump of 2.25m, matching gold medallist Chao Hsuan-Fu of Chinese Taipei. However, Chao cleared the height in his first attempt, while Sarvesh needed two attempts. Republic of Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo won the bronze medal with a jump of 2.22m.

Sarvesh began the competition strongly, clearing 2.10m in his first attempt. He maintained his momentum by clearing 2.14m, 2.18m and 2.22m on his first attempts, keeping himself in the top positions for a long period.

Chao, who needed two attempts to clear 2.18m, then produced his season-best performance by clearing 2.25m on his first attempt to move into the lead.

With both athletes clearing 2.25m, the contest went down to 2.28m. However, neither athlete could clear the height despite three attempts, allowing Chao to finish on top and claim the gold, while Kushare settled for silver.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, experienced Indian athlete Parul Chaudhary bounced back from her fourth-place finish in the 1500m to produce a strong performance and secure the bronze medal.

Parul clocked 9:08.67, smashing her own national record and becoming the first Indian woman to go below the 9:10 mark in the event.

The bronze is Parul’s third Asian Games medal. She had earlier won gold in the 5000 m and silver in the 3000 m steeplechase at the Hangzhou Games in 2022.

Harita Bhadra bagged a bronze medal in the women’s 200m event.

Harita, the 23-year-old sprinter from Maharashtra, finished third with a timing of 23.20s, just one hundredth of a second better than Japan’s Abigeirufuka Ido to secure her place on the podium.

Singapore’s Shanti Pereira clinched the gold in 22.78s while Chinese teenager Chen Yujie (22.93s) took the silver medal.

Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland, the other Indian in the final, finished in sixth place as she clocked 23.46s.

Harita is only the sixth Indian women to win an Asian Games medal in 200m after Roshan Mistry, Christine Brown, P.T. Usha, Rachita Misry and Dutee Chand.

In the men’s 200m final, National Record-holder Animesh Kujur clocked 20.80s to finish fifth while Thailand’s Puripol Boonson equalled the Asian Record of 19.88s on his way to gold.

Tejaswin Shankar could not defend his decathlon silver from the Hangzhou Asian Games but still etched his name in the history books by becoming the first Indian man to win two medals in the gruelling discipline at the continental showpiece, securing bronze on Sunday.

Shankar came third with a total score of 7,934 points, Yuma Maruyama of Japan won the gold medal with 8,123 points and Chen Xinghua from China secured the silver with 8,012 points.

Abhay Singh had to settle for the silver medal after Malaysia’s defending champion Eain Yow Ng produced a composed performance to beat the Indian 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 in the men’s singles squash final.

Abhay became only the second Indian man after Saurav Ghosal, who won singles silver in 2014 and 2023, to claim the silver medal in the event. However, with the loss in the final Abhay missed out on a direct qualfication to the LA 2028 Olympics, where sqaush is making its debut.

The 44-minute contest at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena was closely fought in the opening game before Eain gradually took control, denying Abhay the chance to mount a comeback and retain the title he had won at Hangzhou 2022.

India's teenage sensation Anahat Singh secured a silver medal after losing the gold medal match to Malaysia's defending champion Sivasangari Subramaniam by 4-11, 4-11, 7-11.

Anahat, the reigning Junior World Champion, is the first women's singles silver medallist from India, as Sivasangari defended the gold that she won at the Hangzhou Games.

With this, Anahat has also missed out on the first direct shot at the Olympics, as the winner of the singles event was guaranteed a quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where squash is making its debut. Agencies

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