India began Day 6 in Aichi-Nagoya with two medals in the opening hour as Roshibina Devi secured a historic wushu silver and rowers Satnam Singh and Salman Khan won bronze in the men’s double sculls. The 25-year-old Manipuri athlete lost the women’s 60kg Sanda final 0-2 to China’s Zhang Xiaoyu, but the result made her the first Indian wushu athlete to win medals at three consecutive Asian Games editions. She had previously won bronze in 2018 and silver at Hangzhou.

The rowing bronze arrived shortly before her final, while the men’s kabaddi team also booked a semi-final place and guaranteed India another medal. Track and field action also began, with the mixed 4x400m relay team progressing to the final.

Roshibina Devi Creates History With Third Straight Asiad Medal

The women’s 60kg Sanda final proved difficult against China’s Zhang Xiaoyu, who controlled both rounds and secured unanimous decisions from all five judges. The Indian athlete lost the contest 0-2 after Zhang’s aggressive side-kicks, movement and scoring combinations repeatedly put her on the defensive. The Chinese competitor won both two-minute rounds convincingly.

Despite the defeat, the silver created a significant Indian record. She became the first wushu athlete from India to collect a medal at three successive editions of the continental competition. Her run began with bronze in Jakarta in 2018 before she improved to silver at Hangzhou and repeated that result in Japan. India has now won 11 medals in wushu at the Asian Games — one gold, two silver and eight bronze.

A Difficult Road to the Wushu Final

The medal becomes even more notable because Roshibina Devi was not originally included in India’s final squad. She had lost the selection trial to Divyanshi Choudhary earlier in the year and was left out of the initial seven-member wushu team approved for Japan. Divyanshi later suffered an ACL injury, prompting the Wushu Association of India to name the Manipuri athlete as her injury replacement. The Sports Ministry subsequently approved the change.

That meant she learned about her inclusion only around September 10 and had significantly less preparation time than originally selected athletes. She nevertheless defeated Macao’s Chu Man Sin in the quarter-final before beating Indonesia’s Thania Kusumaningtyas 2-0 in the semi-final to reach the gold-medal bout. After the final, she acknowledged that the late call-up had affected her preparation but said she wanted to learn from the result and return stronger.

Rowing Gives India Day 6’s First Medal

India’s first medal of Thursday came from Satnam Singh and Salman Khan in the men’s double sculls. The Indian pair completed the final in 6 minutes, 13.25 seconds to take bronze.

China’s Yi Xudi and Nie Yide won gold, while Uzbekistan’s Mekhrojbek Mamatkulov and Pavel Sorin finished second. India ended 3.48 seconds behind the Chinese winners and 2.76 seconds behind the silver medallists.

The result was particularly significant for Satnam, who had previously won bronze as part of India’s men’s quadruple sculls crew at the Hangzhou edition. Balraj Panwar narrowly missed another rowing medal after finishing fourth in the men’s single sculls final. India’s women’s four crew finished sixth, while Jaswinder Singh and Nitin Kumar won the Final B of the men’s pair.

India’s Medal Tally Reaches 14

India entered Day 6 with 12 medals. The rowing bronze and wushu silver increased that figure to 14 medals — one gold, six silver and seven bronze based on awarded medals through the morning session. That tally remains provisional during a live competition day because several Indian athletes and teams still have medal events to complete.

The morning results strengthened the story of India at Asian Games competition so far: medals are coming not only from established disciplines such as shooting and weightlifting, but also from wushu, rowing, soft tennis and other events. The kabaddi team has also guaranteed another podium finish, although an assured medal should not be added to the official tally until the competition determines its colour and the medal is awarded.

Men’s Kabaddi Team Assures Another Medal

India defeated Chinese Taipei 37-21 in its Group A match and progressed to the semi-finals. Reaching the last four guarantees a medal under the tournament format. Kabaddi remains one of India’s traditional strengths, so the assured podium finish is important even though the team’s larger objective will be the gold medal.

The women’s side is also in action later against hosts Japan. The progress in kabaddi gives India another route to strengthening its overall medal count as the competition moves deeper into its first week.

Athletics Campaign Begins With Mixed Relay Qualification

India’s athletics campaign moved into competition mode on Thursday. The mixed 4x400m relay team finished fourth in its qualification race but did enough to advance to the final.

In the women’s heptathlon, Pooja and Anamika Aneesh began their multi-event campaigns with the 100m hurdles. After the opening event, Pooja was eighth with 894 points while Anamika stood 10th with 868.

The opening results are only the start of a much larger athletics programme for India. The country will be looking towards athletes including Avinash Sable, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Murali Sreeshankar and Ancy Sojan as track and field events gather momentum in the coming days. India produced 29 track-and-field medals at Hangzhou, making the discipline critical to any attempt to build a much larger overall tally in Japan.

Hockey Team Faces South Korea in Major Pool Test

India’s men’s hockey team entered Thursday preparing for its first major test of the tournament against South Korea. The defending champions began their campaign with dominant victories, including a 16-1 win over Sri Lanka, but Korea represents a significantly stronger opponent. The hockey match was scheduled to begin at 11:30 AM IST at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium. India are in Pool A alongside South Korea, Japan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Because the Day 6 results source was last updated at 11:28 AM IST, the Korea result should not yet be inserted into this article without a fresh update.

Shooting Struggles Continue

India did not add to its shooting medal haul in the morning. Akash Bharadwaj, Kamaljeet and Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve failed to qualify for the men’s 10m air pistol individual final. The result continued a disappointing start for the Indian shooting contingent, which had gone through five competition days without a gold medal despite entering several events with strong medal prospects.

There was still another opportunity later in the day through Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Anantjeet Singh Naruka in the skeet mixed team competition. Both had already been involved in medal-winning skeet performances earlier in the Games.

Squash Players Advance

India also enjoyed a positive start in women’s singles squash. Anahat Singh defeated Singapore’s Au Yeong Wai Lynn to progress from the round of 16.

Tanvi Khanna joined her in advancing after beating another Singaporean opponent, Yeong Wai Yhann, 3-1. In mixed doubles, however, Suraj Chand and Shameena Riaz were eliminated by the Indian pairing of Joshana Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar. Squash remains one of the events where India at Asian Games could add multiple medals later in the competition, with several established Indian players still alive in their draws.

Mixed Results in Swimming, Canoe and Fencing

The morning produced fewer positives in several other disciplines. Benediction Beniston finished joint 12th in the men’s 50m butterfly heats and did not reach the final. India’s men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team also missed qualification after finishing 12th. Aryan Nehra placed third in the men’s 800m freestyle Final B. In canoe sprint, Megha Pradeep and the women’s kayak double combination of Soniya Devi Phairembam and Parvathy Geetha missed their respective finals. India finished seventh in the men’s kayak four 500m Final A.

Fencer Bhavani Devi was also eliminated after losing to China’s Rao Xuyi in the women’s sabre round of 16.

Day 6 Starts With History and More Medals Still Available

For India, Thursday’s opening hours delivered exactly what a multi-sport campaign needs: medals from different disciplines. The rowing bronze provided the first breakthrough, before Roshibina Devi turned a turbulent path to selection into a second consecutive silver and a historic third straight Asiad podium.

More important events remain later in the day.

India still has opportunities in shooting, rowing, kabaddi, squash and other competitions, while the track-and-field programme is only beginning. The expanding range of medal-winning sports has been one of the notable features of the Asian Games campaign so far. India remains some distance from the scale of its record Hangzhou performance, but Day 6 has already added two medals, guaranteed another through kabaddi and kept several more prospects alive.

With the main track-and-field programme now underway, the medal race could accelerate considerably over the coming days.