Olympic medallists Manu Bhaker and Mirabai Chanu will headline India’s campaign on Day 4 of the Asian Games 2026, with the country set for action across shooting, weightlifting, badminton, hockey, kabaddi, rowing, swimming, squash, wushu and other disciplines.
Double Olympic medallist Bhaker will compete alongside Suruchi Inder Singh and Esha Singh in the women’s 10m air pistol individual qualification and team event. The individual final is scheduled for 9:00 AM IST, subject to qualification.
Chanu, meanwhile, will compete in the women’s 49kg weightlifting medal event at 10:00 AM IST.
The day will begin at 5:30 AM IST, with India taking on the Philippines in the men’s team regu Group B match in sepaktakraw. Soft tennis player Jay Meena will also face Sherwin Nuguit in the men’s singles quarterfinal at the same time, while Indian rowers will begin their respective heats.
At 5:40 AM IST, Balraj Panwar will compete in the men’s single sculls heats, followed by Satnam Singh and Salman Khan in the men’s doubles sculls heats at 6:00 AM.
At 6:30 AM, Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Mairaj Khan and Bhavtegh Singh Gill will compete in the men’s skeet individual and team events, while Raiza Dhillon, Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Maheshwari Chauhan will feature in the women’s skeet individual qualification and final.
Also at 6:30 AM, Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade will face Maldives’ Mohamed Ismail and Fathimath Ali in the mixed doubles second round in table tennis.
In fencing, Mina Devi Naorem and Ashitha Stalinraj will compete in the women’s foil individual events, while G Nidhi Kumaresan and Karan Singh will feature in the men’s sabre individual events. The competitions will progress through the knockout rounds and medal bouts.
In equestrian eventing, Fouaad Mirza/Camouflage 38, Arjan Singh Nagra/Cooley Goodwood and Ashish Limaye/Willy be Dun will compete in the individual and team cross-country medal events at 6:30 AM.
Swimming action will see Benedicton Beniston and Sajan Prakash compete in the men’s 100m butterfly heats at 6:42 AM, while Vedaant Madhavan and Aneesh Sunil will feature in the men’s 200m freestyle heats at 7:01 AM.
Rowing action will continue with Jaswinder Singh and Nitin Kumar in the men’s pair heats at 6:50 AM, followed by Gurbani Kaur, Aleena Anto, Tendenthoi Haobijam and Poonam in the women’s four heats at 7:10 AM.
In table tennis, Manush Shah and Diya Chitale will face Sri Lanka’s Chanul Kulappuwawadu and Bimandee Swarna in the mixed doubles second round at 7:10 AM.
India’s women’s kabaddi team will face Iran in their Group A match at 8:30 AM, followed by the men’s team’s Group A clash against Bangladesh at 9:40 AM.
In boxing, Ankush will face Brunei’s Hamsa Vogel in the men’s 80kg round of 32 at around 10:30 AM. Squash players Abhay Singh and Tanvi Khanna will also be in action, facing Thailand’s Arkaradet Arkarahirunya and Kim Dami, respectively, in the men’s and women’s singles round of 32.
Rowing heats will continue through the morning, with Ajay Tyagi competing in the men’s lightweight single sculls at 11:10 AM and Rohit-Ujwal Kumar Singh in the men’s lightweight double sculls at 11:20 AM.
At 11:30 AM, the Indian women’s hockey team will face Thailand in their Pool B match, while the Indian men’s badminton team will take on China in the semifinal.
Veer Chotrani will face Sri Lanka’s Samil Wakeel in the men’s singles round of 32 in squash at 12:00 PM. The men’s quadruple sculls and men’s four rowing heats will follow at 12:10 PM and 12:20 PM, respectively.
Gyaneshwari Yadav will compete in the women’s 53kg weightlifting medal event at 1:30 PM. Swimming finals are scheduled thereafter, with Benedicton Beniston and Sajan Prakash in the men’s 100m butterfly final at 1:38 PM and Vedaant Madhavan and Aneesh Sunil in the men’s 200m freestyle final at 1:54 PM, subject to qualification.
The day is scheduled to conclude with wushu action at 2:30 PM, with Roshibina Devi set to compete in the women’s 60kg semifinal against an opponent yet to be confirmed.
With several Indian athletes competing across disciplines, Day 4 will feature multiple medal events and knockout-stage contests as the country seeks to add to its medal tally at the continental showpiece.
(ANI Inputs)
