India report card for Asian Games 2026: Archery, Boxing A+, B for Shooting while Tennis gets an F

ESPN staffOct 4, 2026, 03:00 AM ET

India wrapped up their 2026 Asian Games campaign with 85 medals and a creditable fourth-place finish in the medal table, behind China, Japan, and South Korea.

A total of 495 Indian athletes went to Aichi-Nagoya in Japan and across 36 sporting disciplines, over 14 days (and more), India returned with 85 medals - 21 of them gold, 27 of them silver, and 37 of them bronze.

Numerically, this a smaller return from the last edition in Hangzhou where the magic figure of 100 was crossed. But India sent a 25% smaller contingent in 2026 and there were fewer sports as well, which means the numbers add up.

While it's not always accurate to reduce sporting performance to mere numbers and grades, the report card makes it simpler to asses just how the Indian squad did. Here's how ESPN rated the performance of India's contingent.

ARCHERY

Grade: A+

Medals: 9 - 5 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze

Best performing sport for India. In terms of both medals and meeting (indeed, exceeding) expectations. Two of these were historic recurve golds - women's individual and team - upending the mighty South Koreans and establishing 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod as a star. This has literally changed the way Indian recurve will be looked at from now on.

P.S. The recurve returns made the compound look better in overall grades, because it won only 3 golds out of the 5 they were defending.

ATHLETICS

Grade - B-

Medals - 1 Gold, 9 Silver, 14 Bronze

Way fewer golds than the last Asiad, but this campaign must be judged by how many athletes pushed the limits. Vithya Ramraj, Parul Chaudhary and Dev Meena broke national records, plenty others set personal bests, Rohit Yadav and Yash Vir Singh showed India could medal in javelin without Neeraj Chopra. Room for improvement, of course, but by no means a poor campaign, even if it came with just one gold medal.

BADMINTON

Grade: C

Medals: 1 - bronze

A disappointment, in all honesty. A men's team bronze medal is normally a good dividend, but for the standards set by Indian badminton players in the past - like 3 medals and a first gold last time - this feels like a downgrade. Sure, the schedule was abominable and may have cost PV Sindhu a shot at a medal, but that reason cannot be used by anyone else, especially not for the first-round losses.

BOXING

Grade: A+

Medals: 6 - 3 gold medals, 3 bronze.

Three gold medals at the Asian Games where some of the world class boxing nations are present is certainly a huge positive. Ankush Panghal, Lovlina Borgohain and Parveen Hooda were outstanding to clinch the golds. Kapil Pokhariya, Narender and Priya couldn't make it to the final but deserved their bronze medals. In fact, India were the best boxing nation at the Asian Games, above the likes of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.

CANOEING

Grade: D

Medals: 0

Indians reached a few finals but never really looked like they could medal. This is worse than last edition, when Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh Salam won a sprint bronze, hence the poor grade.

CRICKET

Grade - A+

Medals: 2 Gold

Came in expected to win two golds. The women dominated and won gold. The men dominated their semifinal, had a bit of a scare in the final, but still won gold. Job done.

CYCLING

Grade: D

Medals: 0

India fielded as many as 14 track cyclists across various events but none of them could make deeper runs. Not much has changed from the last Asian Games to this one.

EQUESTRIAN

Grade: F

Medals: 0

After the gold-winning high of Hangzhou, the Equestrian Federation of India did themselves no favours by leaving Anush Agarwalla out of the squad, and promptly came home empty handed (despite 55-year-old Shruti Vora doing decently). Chaos within the EFI knocks it down to an F.

ESPORTS

Grade: C+

Medals: 0

There were no real expectations ahead of the Games, and while there was a controversial group stage exit of the eFootball team due to strange Asian Games rules, it was overall a satisfactory outing.

FENCING

Grade: F

Medals: None

India sent 20 fencers to Aichi-Nagoya. Not one reached a semifinal, whether in a team event or an individual event. The football teams, for example, must wonder what wrong they'd done to not be sent.

FIELD HOCKEY

Grade: A

Medals: 2 gold medals

The men's hockey team were the clear favourites for the gold medal; and they delivered without losing a match. They had a scare against Pakistan and learnt their lessons.

The women's team achievement is massive. First time in 44 years, they won gold at the Asiad. It showed how much they improved under Sjoerd Marijne who returned as coach only at the start of this year. Beating China, the Olympic silver medallist and defending gold medallist, is no mean feat.

GOLF

Grade: B+

Medals: 1 gold, 1 silver

The men's team didn't make many waves, and hence drag down the A+ showing of the women's team. Pranavi Urs became the first Indian woman to win individual gold, while she joined Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar in the team silver.

GYMNASTICS

Grade: C

Medals: 0

Like last time, India sent only one gymnast and like last time, Pranati Nayak reached the vault final. No medal but met the expectation of reaching the one final Indians traditionally do.

JUDO

Grade: D

Medals: 0

Three Indian judokas went to these Asian Games, two of them lost out in bronze medal bouts. Tough for Asmita Dey and Inunganbi Takhellambam, but one grade higher for making bronze medal bouts.

KABADDI

Grade: A

Medals: 2 gold

Yes, India are always favourites to win gold, but the quality of Iran, and other Asian teams has only been improving in the last few years. The women's team - who do not have the luxury of the Pro Kabaddi League - were especially impressive.

KARATE

Grade: C

Medals: 0

Just two athletes from India in this event with Chetan Bhatt narrowly missing out on the bronze medal in his 84kg kumite bout against Chinese Taipei's Meng-yu Chung. It was a close bout for the bronze but the Indian couldn't prevail in the end. Meanwhile, it was a disappointing campaign for Alisha Choudhary who lost her round of 16 bout. Much was expected of her as she was the reigning Asian champion in the 55kg category.

KURASH

Grade: B-

Medals: 1 bronze

Given the mixture of judokas that feature in Kurash, there were a few medal hopes, and Pincky Balhara didn't disappoint, earning her second Asiad medal to add to her silver from 2018. The rest of the contingent lost early however, and didn't meet standards.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

Grade: B-

Medals: 1 bronze

Suchika Tariyal was a surprise medallist from a contingent that not much was expected from, and her bronze could have even been greater if not for a bizarre Asiad rule that awarded the fight to the lighter competitor in the event of a draw.

ROWING

Grade: B-

Medals: 1 - bronze

This C is more for the administrative chaos, not the contingent. The squad combination was changed at the last minute, rowers claimed, while weather curtailed rowing to 2 says. But it was an underperformance; rowers had won 5 medals (2 silver, 3 bronze) at last Asian Games, so that translates to not meeting expectations.

RUGBY SEVENS

Grade: C

Medals: 0

Only the women's team went, they finished seventh last time and sixth now, so there is a numeric improvement.

SAILING

Grade: B

Medals: 1 Silver, 2 Bronze

The duo of Prince Kurisinkal Noble and Manu Francis won a silver in the men's skiff, Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma won bronze in the women's skiff and Nethra Kumanan won a bronze in the women's dinghy. The exact same medal tally as last time in Hangzhou, but there was a near-miss for Vishnu Saravanan here, as he finished fourth.

SEPAK TAKRAW

Grade: B-

Medals: 1 bronze

They fielded a 21-member squad across both men's and women's events, but only the men's quadrant team won abronze by making it to semifinals. This sport has been winning at least a bronze medal in this event since the 2018 Games so that streak continued.

SHOOTING

Grade: B

Medals: 15 - 3 gold, 8 silver, 4 bronze

Rifle was decent, pistol was poor and trap was a star and the overall performance was average compared to the standard.

SOFT TENNIS

Grade: B

Medals: 1 Bronze

Jay Meena won India their first-ever Asian Games medal in this sport. That was cause for celebration. Not much to say about the rest of the contingent, who didn't really threaten the medals.

SPORT CLIMBING

Grade: C

Medals: 0

Only two Indians participated in it and both have broken their national record. Joga Purty and Deepu Mallesh lowered their own national record in their respective speed events. They did not qualify for the semifinals but the debutants will learn from this experience.

SQUASH

Grade: B-

Medals: 2 Silver, 3 Bronze

Perhaps a gold medal less than expected, which was a disappointment from the top-seeded men's team, in folding to Malaysia in the semifinal. Also, perhaps should have beaten Hong Kong in the women's team semifinal.

Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh winning individual silver medals were both good achievements and bring the grade up.

SURFING

Grade: C

Medals: 0

The farthest a surfer got was a quarterfinal, but the squad of four did not exceed minimal expectations. A satisfactory outing in tough conditions.

SWIMMING

Grade: C

Medals: 0

Not much was expected out of the 12 swimmers who went to Japan. Credit to Rishabh Das for his two top-six finishes including a national record in the 200m backstroke. India swimmers made it from heats to finals in only four events, which is a poor return.

TABLE TENNIS

Grade: B

Medals: 1 - bronze

Manush Shah and Diya Chitale won bronze in mixed doubles, beating the higher-ranked world No 10 pair from Hong Kong before going down to the world No 1 from China. A table tennis medal at the Asian Games is always a good return; India has only 4 in its history. One day, it may get better than bronze, but this is success for now.

TAEKWONDO

Grade: F

Medals: 0

Hopefully, they get better before the next Asian Games come about, both in Taekwondo and virtual Taekwondo.

TENNIS

Grade: F

Medals: 0

India didn't win a tennis medal at the Asian Games for the first time in 40 years. This feels like an accurate reflection of the state of tennis in India. There was controversy over the federation not sending several players purpotdly because they did not have great Asian ranks; that was the first clue that this was going to be a debacle. Still, the streak that was carried on by Indian tennis legends ending is sad.

TEQBALL

Grade: C

Medals: 0

Out of the three athletes, Quimcy Dsouza was the standout by making it to two bronze medal matches. She lost both women's singles and mixed doubles (along with Mohamed Anas Imran Beg) bronze medals games, however. She showed promise though by topping her singles group but nerves and injury at clutch moments meant no medal.

VOLLEYBALL

Grade: C

Medals: 0

The men's volleyball team started on a good note, topped their group by beating Qatar, but couldn't make it past quarterfinals after losing to Pakistan and finished sixth. There's some way to go for the team to be among Asia's best, but they have shown promise. The domestic structure and squabbles with the federation don't help at all. Hopefully the players gain more exposure in the coming years by playing against quality teams.

WEIGHTLIFTING

Grade: D

Medals: 1 Silver

Mirabai Chanu did Mirabai Chanu things, but didn't win gold because Ri Song-gum did Ri Song-gum things. But she was the outlier, not the norm. India's other weightlifters barely threatened the top half of their respective standings, let alone the medals. Plenty of reason to introspect.

WRESTLING

Grade: B

Medals: 2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze

Aman Sehrawat's consistency is impressive and his gold only cemented his status as a wrestling great. Sujeet Kalkal's gold will be rewatched for years. Wrestling sent three fewer wrestlers than Hangzhou and returned with a better showing. Shoots of promise, but the federation remains... chaotic.

WUSHU

Grade: C

Medals: 1 silver

Roshibina Devi comes, wins Asiad silver, leaves. Beating a Chinese opponent seems beyond her, and the lack of progression in the rest of the contingent is concerning, as well as the pre-Asiad selection controversy.