Asian Games 2026: Compound Archers' Golden Sweep Lifts India to Eighth With 10 Golds on Day 11
Aichi-Nagoya: India moved up to eighth place in the Asian Games 2026 medal standings on Wednesday (September 30, 2026), taking its gold tally to ten after a golden sweep in the compound archery events on Day 11 of the competition.
President Droupadi Murmu congratulated the Indian athletes who won gold and bronze medals at the Games, praising their precision, teamwork, determination and grit.
In shooting, Kynan Darius Chenai and Neeru Dhanda staged a superb comeback to beat Qatar and claim gold in the trap mixed team event. The Indian pair finished with a score of 34, an Asian record, securing the country's third gold medal of the day.
Trap is a shotgun discipline in which competitors aim at clay targets launched from a bunker, and the mixed team format pairs one man and one woman. Compound archery, meanwhile, uses a bow fitted with pulley wheels and is decided on cumulative score over a set number of arrows. Both disciplines have become reliable sources of medals for India at the continental level.
Archery has long been among India's strongest disciplines at the Asian Games, and the compound squad's performance on Day 11 underlined that depth. The sweep of the compound events helped India climb the standings at a point in the competition when several other nations were also adding to their tallies.
The Asian Games, held every four years, is the continent's largest multi-sport event, bringing together athletes from across Asia in more than 40 sports. The 2026 edition is being hosted in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, with competition continuing across archery, shooting, athletics and team events.
Attention now turns to the knockout rounds. The Indian men's archery team will take on Sri Lanka in a high-stakes semifinal beginning at 10:00 a.m. IST. In the women's compound individual event, Chikitha Taniparthi will face Nurisa Dian Ashrifah in the quarterfinals at 5:30 a.m. IST.
India will be looking to convert those opportunities into podium finishes, with the individual compound events offering a further chance to add to the medal count.
Separately, the Mayor of Nagoya has apologised for what was described as inconveniences connected with the Games, a statement that drew attention to the organisational demands on the host city during the multi-sport event.
India's final position in the medal table will depend on results in the events still to be decided. With archery and shooting entering their closing stages, the contingent's performance over the coming days will shape where it finishes among Asia's leading sporting nations.
