Sindhu exits Asian Games as seven medals lift India’s tally to 37
AICHI-NAGOYA, Japan, September 27, 2026: India’s Asian Games campaign gained seven medals on Sunday even as PV Sindhu’s quarter-final defeat ended her chance of an individual badminton medal. Four silvers and three bronzes took India to 37 medals: four gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze after the day’s completed medal events. India stood 12th in the standings.
The distinction between medals won and medals assured matters on a day that also brought progress in boxing and archery. The seven additions were awarded in squash and athletics. Three Indian boxers secured at least bronze by reaching their semi-finals, but those medals had not yet been added to the tally.
Sindhu’s quarter-final ends badminton hopes
Sindhu took the opening game against China’s Chen Yufei but lost the women’s singles quarter-final 21-11, 18-21, 10-21. The defeat left her one win short of the semi-finals and the medal they would have guaranteed.
Unnati Hooda also went out in the women’s singles quarter-finals, losing 16-21, 21-14, 17-21 to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi. India’s remaining doubles pairs lost their quarter-finals as well. With those matches complete, the men’s team bronze was India’s only badminton medal at these Games.
Sindhu’s exit was one of the day’s biggest setbacks, but it did not tell the whole story of India’s Sunday. While the badminton campaign closed, two squash finals and five athletics podium finishes steadily raised the medal count.
Two squash silvers
Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh each reached a singles final, then finished with silver against Malaysian opponents. Abhay lost the men’s final to Ng Eain Yow 11-9, 11-5, 11-5. Anahat was beaten 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 by Sivasangari Subramaniam in the women’s final.
Neither result was still in progress by the evening update: both were completed finals, and both medals were silver, not gold. Anahat became the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games squash singles medal.
Athletics delivers five medals
Sarvesh Kushare took silver in the men’s high jump after clearing 2.25 metres. Ancy Sojan added silver in the women’s long jump with 6.53 metres, narrowly behind China’s Huang Yingying, whose final attempt reached 6.55 metres. Together with the two squash results, those finishes accounted for all four of India’s silvers on September 27.
Harita Bhadra won bronze in the women’s 200 metres in 23.20 seconds. Tejaswin Shankar completed the ten-event decathlon in third place for another bronze. Parul Chaudhary supplied the third, running 9:08.67 in the women’s 3,000-metre steeplechase. Her time was a national record, though she finished behind the gold and silver medallists.
Those five athletics results were final, rather than projected placings from competitions underway. They also explain why the overall tally rose from 30 medals at the end of September 26 to 37 at the end of Sunday’s medal programme, without an additional Indian gold.
What was secured but not yet counted
Boxers Ankush Panghal, Parveen Hooda and Narender Berwal won quarter-final bouts and advanced to their respective semi-finals. Each was assured at least a bronze, but their eventual medal colours depended on subsequent bouts. Counting those places as medals already awarded would overstate the September 27 tally.
Indian archers also advanced through team-event rounds, leaving further medal opportunities ahead. Those were qualifications for later contests, not completed podium results on Sunday. The verified evening picture was therefore seven medals won on September 27, a 37-medal overall tally, and additional boxing and archery outcomes still to be settled.
