Asian Games Day 4: India Add Five Medals, Chanu and Meena Make History

India enjoyed a productive and eventful fourth day at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026, adding five medals to its tally while several athletes created historic milestones and others moved within touching distance of the podium. Mirabai Chanu’s silver, Jay Meena’s historic soft tennis medal, twin skeet bronzes and the men’s badminton team’s bronze formed the core of India’s medal haul, while dominant displays in hockey and kabaddi and a silver assured in wushu added further momentum to the campaign.

The five-medal haul took India’s tally to 12 medals - one gold, five silver and six bronze - placing it 13th after the fourth official day. China led with 48 gold, 20 silver and 10 bronze medals for 78 overall, followed by Japan with 15-25-27 for 67 and South Korea with 8-8-25 for 41. Kazakhstan had 7-4-8 for 19 and Thailand 5-3-4 for 12.

Mirabai Chanu ended a long wait by winning silver in the women’s 49kg weightlifting category with 198kg, lifting 87kg in the snatch and 111kg in the clean and jerk. North Korea’s Ri Song-gum won gold with 210kg and Indonesia’s Luluk Diana Tri Wijayana took bronze with 191kg. Chanu’s medal came after her fourth-place finish in 2014 and ended India’s 28-year wait for an Asian Games weightlifting medal since Karnam Malleswari’s 1998 silver.

In soft tennis, Jay Meena assured India of its first-ever Asian Games medal in the sport after defeating the Philippines’ Sherwin Nuguit 4-3 in the quarterfinals. Meena had earlier beaten Pakistan’s Arain Hussain 4-0 in Group D and is competing at his third Asian Games after 2018 and 2022.

Shooting delivered two more bronzes. Parinaaz Dhaliwal, Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari Chauhan combined for 331/375 in women’s skeet, securing India’s first-ever Asian Games medal in the event. China won with a Games-record 357 and Kazakhstan took silver with 336. Dhillon finished fourth individually with 23, while Dhaliwal was eighth; China’s Jiang Yiting won gold with 35, equalling the world record.

The men’s skeet team of Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Bhavtegh Singh Gill also won bronze with 346, behind Qatar (353) and Kuwait (348). Naruka, who had shot 96/100 in the first two qualification days, finished fourth individually after entering the final with 119. Qatar’s Rashid Saleh Al-Athba won gold with an Asian record 34, followed by China’s Lyu Jianlin (33) and Chinese Taipei’s Lee Meng-Yuan (29).

In badminton, India settled for bronze after China won the semifinal 3-1. Lakshya Sen lost 16-21, 18-21 to Shi Yu Qi, before Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat world champions Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-11, 22-20. Ayush Shetty then lost 19-21, 13-21 to Li Shi Feng, while Hariharan Amsakarunan-MR Arjun went down 16-21, 21-17, 9-21 to He Ji Ting-Liu Yi. The medal gave India back-to-back Asian Games men's team medals for the first time in 40 years.

India also advanced two mixed doubles pairs in table tennis. Diya Chitale-Manush Shah beat Maldives 11-0, 11-7, 11-6 and face Hong Kong, while Harmeet Desai-Yashaswini Ghorpade advanced after wins over Maldives and Hong Kong and will meet China.

The women’s hockey team crushed Thailand 20-1, with Deepika scoring nine goals, all from penalty corners. Navneet Kaur scored four and Rutuja Pisal three. India has now scored 56 goals and conceded two in three matches. The men’s kabaddi team beat Bangladesh 48-25 to reach the semifinals, while the women defeated Iran 37-23.

In wushu, Roshibina Devi defeated Indonesia’s Thania Kusumaningtyas 2-0 to reach the 60kg Sanda final, assuring India another medal. She faces China’s Zhang Xiaoyu on September 24.

Day 5 brings several medal opportunities, beginning with rowing finals involving Balraj Panwar, Satnam Singh-Salman Khan, the women’s four, Ujjwal Kumar Singh-Rohit and the men’s quadruple sculls. Roshibina’s final is at 6:10am, followed by shooting, while India faces South Korea in men’s hockey at 11:30am and Chinese Taipei in men’s kabaddi at 9:45am. Athletics, boxing, canoe sprint, squash, swimming, table tennis and esports also feature Indian competitors.

With five medals added on Day 4, another already assured through Roshibina and several athletes still in medal contention, India’s campaign enters its next phase with momentum across multiple disciplines.