Reliance Foundation (RF) athletes Baranica Elangovan and Niraj Kumar added to India’s medal tally at the Asian Games 2026 on Friday, with Baranica creating history in athletics and Niraj contributing to a shooting silver.

Baranica became the first Indian to win an Asian Games medal in pole vault after claiming a shared bronze in the women’s event. She cleared 4.15m to finish joint-third alongside Kazakhstan’s Polina Ivanova, with the two athletes unable to be separated on countback.

The historic result continued an impressive season for Baranica, who had earlier raised the women’s pole vault national record to 4.23m before Sindhushree Ganesha subsequently improved it to 4.25m.

RF athlete Niraj, meanwhile, combined with Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Rudrankksh Patil to win silver in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions team event. The Indian trio aggregated 1762 points, finishing four behind gold medallists China.

Niraj shot 588-34x to finish fourth in qualification and also progressed to the eight-man individual medal round, where he eventually finished eighth.

India add gold and multiple medals

Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet delivered India’s first shooting gold of the Games by winning the 10m air pistol mixed team event with an Asian record score of 484.6.

In athletics, Gulveer Singh won silver in the men’s 10,000m with a time of 28:29.38, while Manpreet Kaur claimed women’s shot put bronze with a season-best 17.17m. Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi also won his men’s 400m heat in 45.27s to progress.

Manush Shah and Diya Chitale secured mixed doubles table tennis bronze, India’s fourth Asian Games medal in the sport.

Both Indian kabaddi teams stormed into the finals, with the men beating Thailand 66-28 and the women defeating Nepal 48-24. 

India’s women’s hockey team also continued its unbeaten run, defeating hosts Japan 3-1 in Pool B to secure a place in the semi-finals. Lalremsiami Hmarzote, Ishika Chaudhary and Navneet Kaur scored for India, who have won all four of their matches so far.

India also assured themselves of three squash medals, with Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh reaching the singles semi-finals and Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar progressing to the mixed doubles last four.