India wins first athletics gold of 2026 Asian Games in women's 4x400m relay

India won its first athletics gold of the 2026 Asian Games on Tuesday when Kiran Pahal, Poovamma Machettira, Prachi and Vithya Ramraj combined to claim the women's 4x400m relay title here.

The Indian quartet clocked 3:29.69 to finish ahead of Bahrain and China and secure the country's first gold in track and field at the ongoing Games.

Earlier, India also collected medals in the mixed relay and women's high jump.

Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Sneha Sathyanarayana and Harita Bhadra won bronze in the mixed relay final with a season-best 41.06 seconds. China took gold in 40.78 seconds, while Thailand secured silver in 40.87.

India's Pooja Singh cleared 1.84m in the women's high jump to take bronze, despite finishing below her personal best.

The athletics haul also featured another milestone from distance runner Gulveer Singh, who won bronze in the men's 5000m with a time of 13:32.75 to complete a hat-trick of medals at the Games.

Gulveer had earlier won silver in the men's 1500m and 10,000m events.

He became only the second Indian man and the fourth Indian overall to win three athletics medals in a single edition of the Asian Games.

Before him, Lavy Pinto won three medals at the 1951 New Delhi Games, PT Usha claimed four at the 1986 Seoul Games and KM Beenamol won three at the 2002 Busan edition.

India's Dev Kumar Meena set a national record in the men's pole vault with a clearance of 5.50m but finished seventh.

Pooja Olla and Mohammed Afsal also finished seventh and eighth respectively in the women's and men's 800m events.