India’s Manu Francis and Prince Noble won the silver medal in the men’s skiff event at the Asian Games 2026 on Thursday, taking the country’s overall medal tally to 62 at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
The Indian duo finished behind China after completing nine races with 23 points, while Hong Kong claimed the bronze medal.
Manu and Prince, who compete together in the 49er class, produced a consistent campaign and won one of the nine races on their way to the silver medal.
The medal was India’s first in sailing at the ongoing Games and took the country’s overall tally in the sport to 24, comprising one gold, nine silver and 14 bronze medals.
India’s first sailing gold at the Asian Games came at the 1982 New Delhi edition, when Farokh Tarapore and Zarir Karanjia finished on top of the podium.
For Manu and Prince, the silver capped a steady rise in the 49er class. The duo, who are relatives and childhood friends from Kerala, began sailing at the grassroots level before training at the National Sailing School in Bhopal and the Muziris Yachting Club, according to a release from SAI Media.
They later continued their development at the Army Yachting Node after joining the Indian Army.
The pair won bronze at the 2022 Asian Sailing Championship in Abu Dhabi and the 2023 Asian Sailing Championships in Pattaya. They also finished first in the Yachting Association of India’s Asian Games Selection Trial-II in Mumbai in January this year.
Earlier on Thursday, India secured its second wrestling medal of the Games after Nitesh Siwach stormed into the men’s Greco-Roman 97kg final with a 9-0 win over Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Ganbaatar.
Nitesh, an Asian Championships silver medallist earlier this year, will face the winner of the semifinal between Iran’s Mehdi Balihamzehdeh and Japan’s Yuri Nakazato in the gold-medal bout.
Mansi Ahlawat, meanwhile, lost 0-6 to Japan’s two-time world champion Nonoka Ozaki in the women’s 62kg semifinal and will compete for bronze.
India also secured a women’s team squash bronze after losing 1-2 to Hong Kong in the semifinal, while the men’s sepaktakraw team assured itself of a medal by defeating Vietnam 2-0 in a Group A quadrant match.
In archery, Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru advanced to the compound men’s individual semifinals after defeating Chen Chieh-lun, while Chikitha Taniparthi’s women’s individual campaign ended with a narrow 143-144 quarterfinal defeat to Indonesia’s Nurisa Dian Ashrifah.
India also had mixed results in judo, with Yamini Mourya entering the women’s 57kg repechage following her quarterfinal defeat, while other Indian athletes continued their campaigns across disciplines.
With the sailing silver, India had won 62 medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Games at the time of writing, comprising 10 gold, 22 silver and 30 bronze.
(ANI Inputs)
