India has already fired up the Asian Games 2026! 🇮🇳 Six medals in just two days, a historic MMA bronze, and two Indian shooters sharing the podium — and the biggest stories may still be coming.
India’s contingent at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan is off to an encouraging start, and once again it’s the shooting range doing the heavy lifting. By the close of Day 2 on September 21, the India’s overall medal count had climbed to six, with the rifle squad delivering four of them and a breakthrough performance in mixed martial arts rounding out the tally. On Day 2, India added four more medals to its tally at the Asian Games 2026, taking its overall count to six.
The headline moment came in the men’s 10m air rifle individual final, where teammates Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil both made the podium — the first time two Indians have finished together on the podium in a single event at these Games. Dhillon closed with 252.4 points for silver and Patil took bronze with 230.9, while Olympic champion Sheng Lihao of China claimed gold with an Asian-record score of 254.2. The pair had already combined with Parth Mane earlier in the day to win silver in the men’s team event. Outside the range, the day’s most historic result belonged to Suchika Tariyal, who won bronze in the women’s traditional 60kg mixed martial arts category — a discipline making its Asian Games debut in 2026, making it India’s first-ever medal in the sport at the Games.
India’s team sports also had a productive day. The men’s kabaddi side opened its campaign with a dominant 49-24 win over hosts Japan, picking up eight all-out points and two super tackles along the way. In hockey, the women’s team followed a 19-0 opening win over Uzbekistan with a 17-1 rout of Indonesia, with Rutuja Pisal, Navneet Kaur and Deepika Sehrawat each scoring hat-tricks to take India’s two-match goal tally to 36. On the badminton court, Paris 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya Sen eased past Bangladesh’s Jaman Ayman Ibn 21-4, 21-12, putting India 1-0 up in their men’s team pre-quarterfinal tie.
Day 1 had already given India its first taste of the podium: shooter Elavenil Valarivan won individual silver in the women’s 10m air rifle event after also helping the team to silver alongside Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod. Two days into competition, China leads the overall medal table with 11 gold, six silver and three bronze medals, with hosts Japan following closely behind.
With India fielding a contingent of roughly 500 athletes across 36 sports through October 4, and disciplines like wushu, boxing and table tennis still to unfold, the medal count is likely to move fast over the coming days — giving Indian sports fans plenty of reason to keep checking in.