Asian Games: CWG silver medalist Harjinder Kaur finishes disappointing 9th

Indian weightlifter Harjinder Kaur finished ninth in the women's 69 kg event at the Asian Games. Pugilist Ankush Panghal secured a medal, while PV Sindhu bowed out in the badminton quarterfinals. Archery teams advanced to the semifinals.

Weightlifting: Harjinder Kaur Finishes Ninth

Indian weightlifter and Commonwealth Games 2026 silver medalist Harjinder Kaur finished in ninth position in the women's 69 kg weightlifting event at the ongoing Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday.

The Indian weightlifter failed to replicate her Glasgow heroics, finishing ninth with a combined lift of 204 kg, with a lift of 94 kg in the snatch and 110 in the clean and jerk category.

Harjinder, the Commonwealth Games silver medalist this year, did not have a great snatch section, finishing with a best lift of 94 kg, failing in her last two attempts at lifting 97 kg. She also fell seven kgs short of her personal best of 101 kg, which she achieved during CWG this year.

From the bottom half of the table, Harjinder moved to the fourth spot in the table with her first clean and jerk attempt of 110 kg, with the combined weight lifted being 204 kg. But with the weightlifters producing better lifts, she dropped down to the bottom half of the table again. She also made only one clean and jerk lift attempt and finished at ninth spot with a combined lift of 204 kg.

The gold medal went to North Korea's Hyang Kuk Song, with a combined lift of 273 (121 in snatch and 152 in clean and jerk), with silver going to Chinese Taipei's Wen-huei Chei with a combined lift of 232 (106 in snatch and 126 in clean and jerk). The bronze medal went to Ingrid Grueso of Bahrain with a combined lift of 229 kg (101 kg in snatch and 128 kg in clean and jerk).

Boxing: Ankush Panghal Assures Medal

Indian pugilist Ankush Panghal confirmed his country a medal in men's 80 kg boxing at the ongoing Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya 2026, beating Tajikistan's Nekruz Salimov in the quarterfinals on Sunday. As per ESPN, Ankush beat Nekruz 5-0 in the quarterfinals via unanimous decision.

India's Mixed Run in Other Sports

Meanwhile, Team India has enjoyed a mixed run across other sports.

Fencing

In fencing, the Indian women's sabre team of Bhavani Devi, Shreya Gupta, Jefarlin Jani Rexlin Simla and S. Shruti Joshi fell 45-35 to Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals, putting an end of India's fencing challenge at the Asian Games.

Badminton

India's badminton individual medal hopes at the Asian Games 2026 ended on Sunday as PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda bowed out in the women's singles quarterfinals.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu made a strong start against China's Chen Yu Fei but could not sustain the momentum, losing 21-11, 18-21, 10-21, according to ESPN. Sindhu took the opening game comfortably, but Chen fought back to level the contest before dominating the decider. The defeat brought an end to India's campaign in badminton at the Games, with the men's team bronze remaining the country's only medal from the sport.

Earlier, 18-year-old Unnati also came close to securing a medal before going down to Japan's former world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi 16-21, 21-14, 17-21 in a closely fought quarterfinal. Unnati recovered after losing the opening game and forced a decider, but could not capitalise when Yamaguchi appeared to be struggling with a leg issue.

Athletics: Indians Advance to Finals

Indian athletes Murali Sreeshankar and David Patturaj Solomon made it to the finals of the men's long jump. Sreeshankar finished second in Group B with a best attempt of 7.84 m, while David Solomon finished at third spot with a best jump of 7.62 m in Group A.

Also, Indian athletes delivered some good news from the women's 400 m hurdles heats, with both Vithya Ramraj and Anu Raghavan making it to the finals of the event. They both finished at second spot in their respective heats. While Vithya clocked a season-best of 55.73, Anu delivered her personal best of 55.84 m.

Kurash

In Kurash, India made multiple quick exits. India's Vishal bowed out in the men's +90 kg quarterfinals with a 0-5 loss to Thailand's Kunathip Yea-On. Sangita Balhara lost 10-0 to Charmea Quelino of the Philippines in her round of 32 fixture. In the round of 16, Bharti lost 3-0 to Iran’s Tahereh Azarpeivand, and Yash Kumar lost 10-0 to Tajikistan’s Shakarmamad Mirmamadov.

Decathlon Update

Tejaswin Shankar dropped from first position to third following the conclusion of the discus throw event in the decathlon on Sunday. Prior to the discus throw event, Tejaswin was at the top of the table in the decathlon, having delivered a third-place finish in the 110m hurdles heat, with a time of 14.33 seconds for 932 points. He was in the lead with 5,270 points and in line for gold. But in the discus throw, he finished third with his best throw of 36.77 m, four metres short of his best, as per ESPN. With 5,869 points, he has dropped down to third spot, with China and Japan occupying the top two spots. The final two events of the decathlon, the pole vault and javelin throw, are not exactly Tejaswin's strengths.

Marathon Race Walk

India's Manju Rani had a disappointing outing in the women's marathon race walk, finishing sixth with a time of 3:40:17, while Priyanka Goswami was disqualified after the 9 km mark.

Archery: Teams Shine and Advance to Semifinals

India enjoyed a strong outing in the archery mixed team events at the Asian Games on Sunday, with Dhiraj Bommadevara-Kumkum Mohod and Sahil Jadhav-Chikitha Taniparthi advancing to the semifinals in recurve and compound, respectively.

Dhiraj and Kumkum followed up their Round of 16 win over the UAE with another comfortable victory, defeating Vietnam 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the recurve mixed team event, according to ESPN. The Indian pair will face Japan in the semifinals on October 2.

Sahil and Chikitha also secured a convincing quarterfinal victory, beating Kazakhstan 159-154 in the compound mixed team event after earlier overcoming Mongolia in the Round of 16. India will take on Thailand in the compound mixed team semifinals on September 30.

The country's archers also progressed to the semifinals of both the men's and women's compound team events, adding to India's strong showing in archery at the Games.

Surfing: Indians Progress to Round Three

Coming to surfing, Sivaraj Babu advanced to round three in the men's shortboard event, outclassing Iran's Davoud Khadir with a score of 8.96 (4.83+4.13 across two waves). He joins compatriot Kishore Kumar in the round three, with all four Indian surfers in the men's and women's shortboard having progressed.

Earlier, Sugar Shanti Gayen and Kamali Prakash made it to the third round. Sugar Shanti beat Chen Wan-yu of Chinese Taipei (5.40) with a score of 7.33, scoring 3.83 points in her first wave and 3.50 in her second. Kamali Prakash beat Singapore's Camille Marie Spaccarotella, scoring 7.57, with 4.17 points coming in the first wave and 3.40 coming in the second wave. Her opponent's score was 4.50. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)