Asian Games 2026: PM Modi congratulates Team India, hails ‘willpower, ardour and noteworthy sporting spirit’
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated the Indian contingent for its efficiency on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, praising the athletes for representing the nation with “willpower, ardour and noteworthy sporting spirit” as India concluded its marketing campaign with 85 medals.India completed fourth on the medal desk with 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals, ending the Games with its second-highest medal haul in Asian Games historical past. The tally was 21 medals fewer than the file 106 gained on the Hangzhou version in 2023.As the Games drew to a detailed in Nagoya on Sunday, Modi took to X to applaud your entire contingent and the medal winners whereas additionally expressing hope that the performances would assist strengthen Indian sport on the grassroots degree.
‘Immense pleasure to the nation’
In his put up, the Prime Minister praised the athletes for his or her effort and sporting spirit all through the continental showpiece.“As the Asian Games 2026 draw to a detailed, my compliments to each member of the Indian contingent for representing our nation with willpower, ardour and noteworthy sporting spirit. Congratulations to all our medal winners, whose performances have introduced immense pleasure to the nation. May these Games encourage even better achievements within the years forward. May they contribute to strengthening sports activities on the grassroots too,” Modi wrote.The Prime Minister’s message got here after greater than two weeks of competitors involving athletes from 45 international locations. The Aichi-Nagoya Games witnessed a string of record-breaking performances, together with 54 global community data.The Games formally concluded with a spectacular closing ceremony on the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya on Sunday.
Historic golds and landmark performances
India’s marketing campaign was marked by a number of historic performances and profitable title defences throughout disciplines.Both Indian cricket squads retained their Asian Games titles, whereas the boys’s and girls’s kabaddi sides additionally gained gold. The males’s hockey aspect efficiently defended its title with a 5-1 victory over Malaysia, whereas the ladies’s crew ended a 44-year look ahead to an Asian Games gold by defeating China 1-0 within the last.There have been additionally a number of breakthrough particular person performances.Pranavi Urs grew to become the primary Indian lady to win a person Asian Games golf gold, whereas 17-year-old archer Kumkum Mohod created historical past by changing into the primary Indian lady to win particular person recurve gold on the continental showpiece.Mohod was additionally a part of India’s historic ladies’s recurve crew gold that ended South Korea’s seven-edition successful streak within the occasion. Wrestler Sujeet Kalkal, in the meantime, produced probably the most dramatic comebacks of the Games to win the boys’s 65kg freestyle gold.Boxer Lovlina Borgohain additionally joined an elite group of Indian ladies by changing into solely the second after Mary Kom to win an Asian Games boxing gold.
Looking past Aichi-Nagoya
Athletics emerged as India’s largest medal contributor with 24 medals, whereas capturing accounted for 15. Archery was essentially the most profitable sport when it comes to gold medals, producing 5 high finishes.The marketing campaign additionally supplied a sequence of necessary milestones forward of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with a number of younger athletes making their mark on the continental stage.Earlier, Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha named Mohod and Kalkal the inaugural recipients of the Jaspal Rana Award and Raja Randhir Singh Award respectively for the very best feminine and male Indian sportspersons of the Games.With the Aichi-Nagoya marketing campaign now full, Modi’s message positioned the emphasis not solely on India’s medal tally but additionally on the broader legacy of the Games — inspiring one other technology of athletes and strengthening the sporting ecosystem from the grassroots upwards.
