India end Asian Games with 85 medals and 21 golds, their second-best haul ever

India finished their Asian Games campaign in Japan with 85 medals: 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze. That placed them fourth on the medal table and gave the country its second-highest haul at an Asian Games, behind the record 107 medals won at Hangzhou in 2023.

The last full day of competition, Saturday 3 October, was the best of the Games for India. Five gold medals came in five different sports: golf, archery, cricket, hockey and wrestling.

The golden Saturday

• Golf: Pranavi Urs won the women’s individual title, the first golf gold by an Indian woman at the Asian Games.
• Archery: 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod won the women’s individual recurve final in a shoot-off against South Korea’s Oh Yejin.
• Cricket: The men’s team beat Pakistan by 19 runs in the final to retain their title.
• Hockey: The men’s team beat Malaysia 5-1 to win gold and qualify directly for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
• Wrestling: Aman Sehrawat won the men’s 57 kg freestyle gold.

There were also silvers for the women’s golf team and for Antim Panghal in the women’s 53 kg wrestling, and bronzes for archer Neeraj Chauhan and wrestler Deepak Punia.

Tickets to Los Angeles

Beyond the medals, the Games mattered for Olympic qualification. India secured places at LA 2028 in four events: men’s hockey, women’s hockey, women’s individual recurve archery and the compound mixed team archery event, which Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Jadhav won.

Both hockey teams won gold. The women beat China 1-0 in their final, so both sides avoid the FIH qualification tournaments that India have had to go through in past Olympic cycles.

What it means

The total is short of Hangzhou’s, but the bigger story is breadth: India won gold in team sports, individual sports and in disciplines like golf and women’s recurve archery where they had never won before.

Sources: Khel Now, India Sports Hub, Business Today.