Asian Games 2026: Indian women win 4x400m relay gold, end athletics drought
The Indian women's 4x400m relay team won gold at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Tuesday (September 29, 2026), ending the country's wait for a medal of that colour in track and field events at the Games.
The quartet of Kiran Pahal, M.R. Poovamma, Prachi Chaudhary and Vithya Ramraj clocked 3:29.69s at the Paloma Mizuho Athletics Stadium in the penultimate event of the edition. The win restored India's position at the top of an event it has traditionally dominated and had conceded to Bahrain at the previous Games.
India had gone through the week without an athletics gold, with several athletes finishing close to the top of the podium. A Games without a track and field gold for the first time in 32 years had begun to look possible before the relay team's performance on the final day of athletics competition.
Kiran Pahal ran the opening leg to keep India in contention from the start. Poovamma, the seniormost member of the squad, ran the second leg. She was part of the Indian quartets that won gold in the same discipline in 2014 and 2018. Prachi Chaudhary, who was in the silver-winning team last time, ran the third leg and moved India up to second place against the pace set by Bahrain and China. Vithya Ramraj, who set a national record in the 400m hurdles earlier in the Games and had already won a silver in the 4x400m mixed relay, ran the anchor leg. The 28-year-old overtook Zuo Siyu on the final bend and then held off Salwa Eid Naser to secure the gold.
The relay win was the highlight of a day that also brought four bronze medals for India. National record holder Gulveer Singh added a bronze in the 5,000m to his two silvers in the 10,000m and 1,500m, becoming the first Indian man to win three individual athletics medals at a single edition of the Asian Games. He clocked 13:32.75.
The men's 4x400m relay team, the defending champion, finished third with a time of 3:01.61. The team comprised Dharamveer Chaudhary, Manu T.S., Jaykumar and Vishal T.K. In the mixed 4x100m relay, Gurindervir, Sneha, Animesh Kujur and Harita Bhadra improved on their heat timing to take bronze with a season's best of 41.06.
Pooja Singh, the national record holder in high jump, led the competition for much of its duration before finishing with bronze at 1.84m. She cleared every mark on her first attempt until she attempted 1.87m. Pole vaulter Dev Meena finished seventh but set a new national record of 5.50m. Tanya Chaudhary recorded a personal best of 65.35m on her final attempt to finish fourth in the hammer throw.
The results on the final day took India's athletics tally at the edition to one gold, three silver and several bronze medals, with the relay team's performance ensuring the contingent did not return home without a top-podium finish in the sport. The Asian Games athletics programme concluded with the relays, bringing the competition at the Aichi-Nagoya edition to a close.
