Asian Games 2026 Day 8 Highlights: India win kabaddi gold medals, Anahat turns heads

Sindhu takes opener against Chiu Pin Chan 21-19

PV Sindhu has a silver from 2018 at the Asian Games. She was nearly blanked by Tai Tzu-ying back then in finals but had registered India's best showing in Women's singles making final. It was when Saina Nehwal took bronze - for a happy double India podium.

Tai Tzu-ying has since retired, but her coach Lai Chien Cheng is helping hone skills of the next Taiwanese.

But Sindhu in control of this one against Chiu Pin Chan.

(from Shivani Naik)

Abhay Singh beats Pakistan's Md Irfan 11-2, 12-10, 11-6 to enter the men's singles final! A handshake at the end between the two players, like we saw from Irfan and Veer Chotrani in the previous round as well.

So Anahat in the women's singles and Abhay in the men's singles will fight for gold medal.

Speaking to The Indian Express on India-Pak contests last year, Abhay Singh had this to say of the 2023 Faceoff. There was no hatred at the outset, but Singh says he took social media scribbles personally.

"It became a bigger deal because of the nonsense that went on, and their players had a lot to say. I wanted to win because we'd have to hear a lot if we didn’t. So I took it personally and decided that every time there's a team event, we will not lose. We see it in cricket and I know you can't get caught up in this if you want to win. But it brought out a different side of me. Look, cricket, hockey, squash, you can't be delusional when playing India and say stuff while you are always losing."

Pakistan last won a squash individual gold in 1998 and men's team in 2010, and the sport in a nation that boasted colossals like Jahangir and Jansher Khan, has been on the wane.

2026 was expected to be tougher.

"Now, when I meet them on Tour, there's a lot of mutual respect. And at the doubles this summer, they were unexpectedly tough to beat and gave a good fight. So it's going to be harder than last time. You have no clue how sharp that rivalry will get. Noor Zaman is in incredible form, Ashab Irfan has a few wins against our guys. Whatever the scenario, I'm up for it," he added.

What an imperious display of attacking squash from Abhay Singh! He wins the first game against Pakistan's Muhammad Irfan by 11-3.

Abhay displayed his range of shots in that first game to seal with at canter. He needs to win two more of these.

Anahat Singh pulls off a heist.

Trailing 0-2 in the semifinal against Satomi Watanabe, the Indian star saves three match points in the third game and comes back to win the tie 3-2 leaving Watanabe in tears.

She will play tomorrow in the final.

There's an Olympic spot available if she can beat the Malaysian

By Pritish Raj

Utter heartbreak for Watanabe, who was sobbing away into her towel long after the match ended.

Anahat Singh levels semi-final at 2-2 after being 0-2 down.

Anahat lost the first two games 11-9, 13-11. it looked like another bronze medal was loading at that stage for India in squash after Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar in mixed doubles squash. But then, out of nowhere the Indian teen starts her resurgence and rattles off two games 12-10 and 11-6 to push the semi-final into a decider.

The Indian women's team have their third gold of the 2026 Asian Games, thanks to the women's kabaddi team who defeated the Iranian team 37-34 in the final.

The Iranians had just one member of the side that had played in the Asian Games before this. But despite that, they pushed the defending champions India all the way to the finish line.

There were so many moments where India were under pressure, especially after that four-point raid from Atena Madadi that enforced an all out. There was also a point where India saw its lead from 22-12 shaved off to 23-20.

WHAT A RAID FROM SANJU DEVI!

India's lead was down to just three points after a mistake from Pinki while defending where she leapt in for a tackle and could not hold the raider. Then Sanju wanders into the Iranian territory for a raid and gets two players out in a single raid.

Then in the following Iranian raid, Pushpa Rana steps up and then tackles the Iranian raider.

With 4.15 minutes to go India lead 34-28

Sen shoots a 9.4 and finishes fourth. Third fourth place finish for an Indian shooter in Japan with Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Raiza Dhillon finishing fourth earlier in men's and women's individual skeet finals.

from Nitin Sharma

Arina Malinovskaya of Kazakhstan is eliminated at the sixth spot while Sen is at fourth spot now and Vidarsa at fifth spot.

India went to half-time with a 22-16 lead. Then the Iranians almost caught up with them. But then, India have a saving grace of a tackle. WHAT A TACKLE!

India were down to two players on the court. And they have a fragile 23-20 lead (they led 22-12 at one point). So they were running the risk of an all out. Ritu, is brought in as a substitute to stand in the right corner. And the substitution looks like a masterstorke when the Iranian raider tried to get a touch of her, and she grabs the ankle of the raider and ensures there is a super tackle!

What a moment for that tackle form a substitute!!

Another review. It seems like each time there is a play there is review. This time an Iranian raider enters India's enemy territory and then returns with what she thought was a bonus point, But her front foot does not seem to have been in the air while her back foot was in the bonus area.

Doesn't go Iran's way!

After the prone position, Tillotama Sen is placed fifth with a score of 205.9. Vidarsa Kochakumal is placed seventh with a total of 205.3. Liyuan Zhang of China has climbed to the spot with a score of 206.5 while Korean Kim Ji-Eun is played second with a score of 206.3. Arina Malinovskaya of Kazakhstan is placed third with a score of 206.2.

The standing position starts now. After the first two standing series of five shots each, two shooters will be eliminated followed by the single shot elimination for every position.

from Nitin Sharma

After the kneeling position, Tillotama Sen is placed fifth with a score of 102.4. Vidarsa Kochakumal is placed sixth with a total of 102.1. Arina Malinovskaya of Kazakhstan leads at the top spot with a score of 103.4 while Kim Ji-Eun of Korea is placed second with a score of 103.3. Liyuan Zhang of China is placed third with a score of 103.0

In the women's kabaddi final, India and Iran are locked at 5-5 in the first half. India had a 5-3 lead, before a angle lock tackle earned Iranians two points.

Unnati Hooda is currenly duelling Malaysia's Ling China Wong. Having won the first game, she was trailing in the second one, before catching up at 10-11. If she wins this, Unnati will have a second match later today, she there's added motivation to finish matches in just two games.

In Archery, Chikitha Taniparthi has topped the qualification with a score of 705. Jyothi Surekha Vennam is placed 13th with a score of 699 while Prithika Pardeep is placed 20th with a score of 695. The Indian team is placed second in team qualification with Chinese team too having a cumulative score of 2099 but more inner tens.

from Nitin Sharma

Nitin explains: Unlike shooting, team events see here the teams competing based on rankings in preliminary rounds and followed by semi-finals and finals and a bronze medal play-off too.

The final cut-off stands right now at 587. Tilottama Sen has two shots remaining but she has confirmed her spot. Kochalukmal has four shots remaining and should not drop two points. Such a close competition for the top 8 spots.

Chouksey is out of contention for the final. Tilottama Sen and Vidarsa Kochalumkal qualify for the women’s 50m rifle 3P final as they finish third and fifth with respective scores of 590 and 588. Ashi Chouksey finishes 15th with a score of 585.

From Nitin Sharma

India is almost certain of a silver medal in team standings in women's 50m Rifle 3P event. Chinese have finished with a cumulative total of 1773. Ashi Chouksey drops seven points in her first standing series and Indian team is currently standing at second spot and cannot overtake China's cumulative total even if the trio hits a 300 in the last series. The fight is now for the final 8 spots for the qualification as Chouksey drops to 14th with Sen currently placed fourth and Kochalumkal placed fifth.

from Nitin Sharma

All the three Chinese shooters are in the top eight with Jiayu Han at the top. 12th placed Vidarsa Kochalumkal needs to be in the top eight and better than the third Chinese and also hope that Sen and Chouksey don't drop their position. That's the scenario when Indian team can win the team gold medal.

from Nitin Sharma

Thowfeeq recorded a massive 7.37m and he is joint fourth with 1759 point in men's decathlon. Tejaswin is second with 1807 as the Long jump ends in men's decathlon.

From Pritish Raj

Tejaswin Shankar has jumped 7.53m in the long jump and currently leads the field. Earlier he clocked 10.98s in the 100m and is placed second overall

From Pritish Raj

Earlier in the year, Sawan Barwal, an army havildar, had done what no other Indian marathoner could do for nearly half a century.

At the NN Marathon Rotterdam, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, the 28-year-old from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, clocked 2 hours 11 minutes and 58 seconds to break the late Shivnath Singh’s marathon record of 2:12:00 set in 1978.

India’s oldest athletic record was broken by the long-distance runner making his debut in the marathon.

Barwal, son of a car driver, is posted in Dehradun. He is attached to Army Sports Institute (ASI) in Pune but is a key member of Reliance Foundation’s Project 2:09, as the name suggests, aimed at an Indian finishing a marathon in 2 hours and nine minutes.

Read Nihal Koshie's piece on Sawan Barwal, when he had broken Shivnath Singh's national record earlier in the year

Sawan Barwal breaks National record to win silver medal in the men's marathon!

Here's a list of India's marathon medallists at Asian Games

1951: Chhota Singh --- Gold (2:42:58.6 s)

1951:Surat Singh Mathur --- Bronze (2:53:49.8 s)

1982: Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan --- Bronze (2:25:07 s)

here's a look at the man in the gold medal contention, Japan's Yamashita. He's had a unique idea of putting gold and silver tinsel hooks around his water bottles so that he can pick out them from the hydration points.

Now Barwal has dropped about 26 seconds behind Yamashita, but is still in silver medal contention.

The lead runners' pack has now thinned to two runners, one of them is India's Sawan Barwal, who is just on the shoulder of North Korea's Han Il Ryong.

We have just eight kilometres left for the marathon finish line to appear. And an Indian marathoner is in medal contention!

While we watch the marathon race playing out in Japan's Nagoya, here's a wonderful piece from Sriram Veera on Japan's love for long-distance running.

Written before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Veera wrote: "Japan is the most running obsessed nation on the planet with a particular emphasis on long-distance races that are insanely popular. This year, over half of Japan’s population, almost 65 million people, watched the men’s two-day road relay between universities in the Kanto region of Japan – the famous Hakone Ekiden, run over 165 miles."

The piece also introduced us to Kokichi Tsuburaya, the marathon runner who won the bronze in the 1964 Olympics, and who not long after committed suicide, clutching his bronze medal.

Read more

Feng's break has split the bunched-up lead pack into three groups now. India's Sawan Barwal is in the lead pack behind China's breakaway leader Feng. Feng's compatriot, Jia, has dropped off now, struggling to keep pace.

Also struggling to keep pace is India's other runner Karthik Karkera, who's last in the pack from the look of things.

Long way to go in the race, but India's Karthik Karkera is in second spot in the men's marathon. here are his split times at 5 kilometer intervals.

Ranked 8 at 5 km mark: 15:29 seconds (+0:02 seconds behind lead runner)

Ranked 5 at 10 km mark: 31:29 secs (+0:01 seconds behind lead runner)

Ranked 2 at 15 km mark: 47:35 secs (+0:01 seconds behind lead runner)

Straight as an arrow. The runner have just sped past the Mirai Tower for the second time in the marathon. You can see the two Indians there, Sawan and Karthik.

13 kilometeres done. The marathoners have been at it for about 42 minutes.

Good morning sports fans! It's an early start to the day for the Indian contingent --- and consequently for us --- as the marathoners hit the streets while the archers enter the fray in qualification events. Grab a coffee and stay with us for live updates from day 8 of the Asian Games.