Indian opened its Asian Games 2026 gold medal account on Tuesday after the Harmanpreet Kaur-led women’s cricket team defended their title, beating Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the final at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin. It was India’s first gold medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Games and seventh overall following five in shooting and one in Mixed Martial Arts.
Electing to bat in a rematch of the Hangzhou final, India racked up an imposing 216/3, propelled by blistering knocks from openers and . Richa Ghosh put the icing on the cake with an unbeaten 49 off just 22 balls to power India well beyond the 200.
The defending champions then delivered a clinical bowling performance, bundling out Sri Lanka for 69 in under 16 overs. For India Deepti Sharma took three wickets, while , Shreyanka Patil and Shafali Verma, all finished with two wickets each.
Later on the day, the Indian men’s badminton team, silver medallists at Hangzhou 2023, assured themselves a medal after beating hosts Japan in the quarterfinal at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium on Tuesday. Reaching the semifinals itself assures themselves a medal.
In the official medal tally, the standings are determined the number of gold medals won by each country. The silver and bronze medals are used as the next best criteria in case the gold count is tied.
India have won a record-breaking 100-plus medals in the previous edition in Hangzhou. with 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze, India set a new benchmark at the Asian level with 107 medals. It was also the first time in the history India’s medal tally crossed the three-figure mark.
In fact, the 2023 accumulation also made India the fourth country after China, Japan and the Republic of Korea to win 100 or more medals in a single edition of the Asian Games. In 2018, India had won 70 medals.
Earlier, India added four medals to its tally on Monday, with shooting once again at the forefront of the medal haul. Himanshu Dhillon won silver and Rudrankksh Patil secured bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle individual event. The two then joined 18-year-old Parth Mane to claim silver in the team event, as India finished with 1898.4 points.
The fourth came from 36-year-old Indian MMA star , who claimed a historic bronze. It was India’s first MMA medal at the Asian Games as the sport makes its debut in the 2026 edition.
