India wins women's 4x400m relay gold at Asian Games

India's women's 4x400m relay team of Kiran Pahal, M R Poovamma, Prachi Chaudhary and Vithya Ramraj won gold at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya on Tuesday. They clocked 3 minutes 29.69 seconds, holding off Bahrain (3:30.21) and China (3:31.02) on the final day of athletics competition.

The victory marked India's first athletics gold of these Games after six days of near misses and gave the country its second gold of the day. Earlier, shooter Neeru Dhanda won India's first-ever Asian Games gold in women's trap with a score of 28, setting a new Games record in rainy conditions.

“They may not understand their languages sometimes but they speak of one common goal — gold.”

The two gold medals pushed India's overall tally to 52 medals — six gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze — moving the nation into 10th place in the standings. India finished the athletics programme with 24 medals: one gold, nine silver and 14 bronze.

Vithya Ramraj completed a full medal set at this edition, adding relay gold to her mixed relay silver and 400m hurdles bronze. She also broke P T Usha's 40-year-old national record earlier in the Games. Poovamma, 36, won her third consecutive Asian Games relay gold after 2014 and 2018.

Gulveer Singh became only the second Indian man to win three track and field medals at a single Asian Games, adding 5000m bronze to his earlier 10,000m and 1500m silvers. High jumper Pooja Singh and the mixed 4x100m and men's 4x400m relay teams also claimed bronze on the final day.