New Delhi [India], September 17 (ANI): After India’s record-breaking marketing campaign in Hangzhou, the nation’s defending Asian Games champions are heading into one other continental problem, this time in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, the place the 2026 Asian Games will likely be held from September 19 to October 4.
India’s report marketing campaign on the 2023 Asian Games produced 28 gold medals and 107 medals general. As the nation prepares for the subsequent version in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, the highlight will likely be on those that helped create that success and now face the problem of doing it once more.
In athletics, Avinash Sable will search one other gold within the males’s 3000m steeplechase, whereas Tajinderpal Singh Toor returns as a defending champion within the males’s shot put. Parul Chaudhary, who claimed gold within the girls’s 5000m in Hangzhou, can even be amongst India’s key athletics names.
The males’s 4x400m relay workforce provides a distinct dimension to the title-defence story, with 4 athletes needing to ship collectively on the most important continental stage.
In compound archery, Jyothi Surekha Vennam will likely be amongst India’s distinguished names because the nation seems to construct on its sturdy displaying in Hangzhou. Indian compound archers loved a extremely profitable marketing campaign in 2023, making the self-discipline one to look at once more in Japan.
Shooting will as soon as once more be central to India’s medal ambitions. Manu Bhaker and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar are among the many names related to India’s Hangzhou gold-medal marketing campaign and can return to the Asian Games highlight.
On the badminton courtroom, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will carry maybe probably the most vital title-defence tales. The pair grew to become India’s first males’s doubles badminton champions on the Asian Games in Hangzhou, turning their gold right into a landmark second for Indian badminton.
The Indian males’s hockey workforce can even arrive in Japan as defending Asian Games champions. Their Hangzhou gold secured India’s qualification for the Paris Olympics and underlined the workforce’s significance within the nation’s multi-sport marketing campaign.
Cricket will add one other main storyline. India gained each the boys’s and ladies’s T20 cricket gold medals when the game returned to the Asian Games programme in Hangzhou. With cricket persevering with to characteristic in Aichi-Nagoya, the Indian groups will as soon as once more be a part of the nation’s medal marketing campaign.
For these athletes and groups, nonetheless, the 2026 Asian Games is not going to be a easy repeat of Hangzhou. New opponents, altering type, elevated expectations and the strain of defending a title will create a distinct problem.
India’s historic marketing campaign at Asian Games 2023:Â India signed off from the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou with a report haul of 107 medals, comprising 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze. The tally surpassed India’s earlier finest efficiency on the Asian Games, achieved on the 2018 version in Jakarta, the place the 570-member Indian contingent gained 70 medals, together with 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze.
Shooting emerged as India’s most profitable sport in Hangzhou, producing an unprecedented 22 medals, together with seven gold.
Athletics adopted intently, with India’s marketing campaign headlined by Neeraj Chopra efficiently defending his males’s javelin throw title. The sport contributed six gold, 14 silver and 9 bronze medals to India’s general tally. However, Neeraj will miss the upcoming Asian Games after he suffered an ankle ligament tear throughout a coaching session, which additionally ended his 2026 marketing campaign.
India additionally loved a dominant marketing campaign in compound archery, sweeping all 5 gold medals on supply within the self-discipline. The remaining gold medals got here from squash, tennis and equestrian, finishing India’s tally of 28 gold medals on the Hangzhou Asian Games.
From Sable and Toor on the athletics monitor to Satwik-Chirag on the badminton courtroom, Jyothi in compound archery, India’s shooters, hockey workforce and cricket sides, the journey from Hangzhou to Japan will take a look at whether or not India’s champions can as soon as once more end on the high of the Asian podium. (ANI)