Tag: Asian Games 2026

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: India’s Archery Golds Shine at Asian Games 2026

Two gold medals. One day. One archer standing on the top step of the podium twice before dinner.

September 30 belonged to India’s compound archers at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya. First, the women’s team — Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha Taniparthi, and Prithika Pradeep — retained India’s Asian Games gold, defeating China 238-234 in the final. That 238 was not just a winning score. It equalled the world record, matching the mark South Korea set at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games twelve years ago.

Then, later the same day, Chikitha Taniparthi walked back out with Sahil Rajesh Jadhav for the compound mixed team final — and won that too, beating South Korea in a shoot-off. Two events, two golds, one extraordinary afternoon. It was also India’s seventh gold medal of the Games, and the medal race in Nagoya is very much on.

A final worth the record books

Let us put 238-234 in perspective. In compound team archery, each archer shoots with mechanical precision aids, and scores in major finals routinely land in the 230s. The difference between gold and silver is usually a handful of points — the width of an arrow shaft, the tremor of a heartbeat. India’s trio did not just edge China. They shot a number that ties the best team score ever recorded at the Asian Games.

Twelve years is a long time for a record to stand. South Korea’s 2014 mark survived three Asian Games cycles, countless finals, and the steady improvement of equipment and training across the continent. Tying it on the biggest stage, against China, in a gold-medal match — that is the kind of performance archers dream about and almost never get to live.

And retaining the title matters in its own right. Winning once can be a breakthrough. Winning again, four years later, with the target on your back and every rival gunning for you, is a dynasty taking shape.

Chikitha Taniparthi’s golden double

The day’s standout individual story is Chikitha Taniparthi. Team gold in the morning session, then back on the range for the mixed team final alongside Sahil Rajesh Jadhav — and a shoot-off win over South Korea to make it two.

Shoot-offs are archery’s version of a penalty shootout: single arrows, sudden death, nowhere to hide. To win one against South Korea — the country that has defined excellence in this sport for decades — and then to have already won gold earlier the same day? That is composure most athletes never find once, let alone twice in a day.

Jadhav deserves his share of the spotlight too. Mixed team archery demands a particular chemistry: two archers syncing rhythm, timing, and nerve. Against the Koreans, in a shoot-off, that partnership held. Gold number seven for India at these Games came down to two people trusting each other completely, one arrow at a time.

What this says about Indian archery

There was a time, not long ago, when India was the plucky challenger in Asian archery — talented, dangerous, but usually watching someone else climb the top step. Those days are fading fast. Back-to-back women’s team titles, a world-record-equalling score, and a mixed team gold over South Korea in a single day is not an upset. It is a statement.

The compound program in particular has become a genuine powerhouse. While much of the global spotlight falls on recurve — the Olympic discipline — India’s compound archers have been quietly assembling one of the deepest squads in the world. Days like this one in Nagoya are what depth looks like when it peaks at the right moment.

There is also something to be said for how this team wins: calmly. No drama in the reporting from Nagoya, just scores that kept climbing until the record book had to make room. In a sport measured in millimeters, temperament is equipment. India’s archers brought plenty of both.

And spare a thought for the less-heralded names on the scoresheet. Jyothi Surekha Vennam has been the steady anchor of this squad for years, the experienced hand younger teammates lean on when finals get tight. Prithika Pradeep shot her arrows in a world-record-equalling team round on one of the biggest stages in the sport. Gold medals have a way of remembering only the headlines; the truth is they are always a team effort, down to the last arrow.

The view from here

The Asian Games are only getting started, and India’s medal tally is already telling a story — seven golds and counting, with archery now firmly among the headline acts. For the trio of Vennam, Taniparthi, and Prithika Pradeep, the women’s team gold is validation of a four-year cycle done right. For Taniparthi and Jadhav, the mixed gold is proof that India’s pipeline runs deep enough to win twice in a day.

Sports weeks like this one remind you why the Games matter — the same reason a centennial street feast can turn a whole neighborhood into a party or a Grand Prix weekend can take over Little Italy: excellence, witnessed live, is one of the purest joys there is.

So here is to the archers of Nagoya. Two hundred thirty-eight points. Two gold medals. One unforgettable Wednesday. The record book has a new entry, and it reads: India.

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: EJ Obiena Defends Asian Games Pole Vault Gold

Rain hammering the track. A slick runway. And a bar sitting at a height no Asian Games pole vaulter has ever cleared.

That was the scene at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Tuesday, when EJ Obiena walked back from the rain for the biggest jump of his Asian Games career. Gold was already his. What remained was the record. He planted, launched, and cleared 5.91 meters on his third attempt, a new Asian Games record, and sealed back-to-back titles for the Philippines.

How the final unfolded

Obiena, a two-time Olympian, competed like a man with a plan from the start. He skipped the opening heights entirely, then cleared 5.50, 5.70, and 5.75 meters on his first attempts. At 5.80 he missed twice. Rather than grinding for a third try at a height he had already bettered at the last Games, he had the bar raised to 5.91, a full centimeter above his own Games record of 5.90 meters from Hangzhou 2023, and made it count on attempt number three.

The silver went to China’s Yao Jie, who cleared 5.70 meters and took the tiebreak on countback, with fellow Chinese vaulter Li Chenyang claiming bronze at the same height. Thailand’s Patsapong Amsamarng pushed the leaders hard. But once Obiena went up for 5.91, the rest was ceremony.

For the Philippines, it was the country’s third gold medal of the 2026 Asian Games, and it came from its most reliable star on the biggest regional stage in athletics.

The making of a champion

Obiena’s path to this moment has been anything but smooth. He trains largely abroad, based in Italy for much of the year under coach Vitaly Petrov, and has carried the weight of being the Philippines’ great athletics hope for the better part of a decade. He is the Asian record holder in the event, and he has spoken openly about the loneliness and the logistics of chasing centimeters on the world stage.

That context is what makes days like Tuesday resonate. A pole vaulter’s progress is measured in the tiniest margins. Five centimeters separated his Hangzhou record from his Nagoya record, which is to say: one perfect plant, one clean swing, and a bar that stayed put. He found it in the rain.

There is a particular drama to the pole vault that other events can’t quite match. Every jump is a private negotiation between the athlete, a fiberglass pole, and gravity, played out in front of thousands. When Obiena raised the bar to 5.91 after gold was secure, he was doing it for the record books and for the home crowd watching back in Manila. You don’t get many sporting moments that feel simultaneously that calculated and that joyful.

What comes next

At 30, Obiena remains firmly in his prime for the event, and the world-class heights are still in front of him. The global outdoor stage has seen vaulters clear six meters with regularity in recent seasons, and Obiena has the technique to join that club on the right night. For now, though, back-to-back Asian Games golds with a new record is a statement that stands on its own.

For Filipino sports fans, it is also a reminder of how far the country’s athletics program has come. A decade ago, the idea of a Filipino vaulter as the heavy favorite at the Asian Games would have seemed optimistic. Now it is simply the expectation.

There is a deeper reason this one stings less and lands more, if that makes sense. Obiena has carried the flag for Philippine athletics through funding fights, federation disputes, and the grind of competing an ocean away from home. He chose to stay with his program, chose the hard road of a European training base, and kept clearing bars. Back-to-back Asian Games titles is the payoff, but the real story is the decade of stubbornness underneath it.

What the record means in context

The Asian Games record of 5.91 meters sits well below the heights being cleared at global championships, where the world’s best regularly threaten six meters and beyond. But context matters. Records are set against the competition in front of you, in the conditions you are given, and doing it in a downpour, after gold was already decided, on your third attempt at a height you chose for yourself, is exactly the kind of performance that separates champions from medalists. Anybody can jump high on a perfect night. Jumping high in the rain because you want the record takes something else.

The win fits a wider pattern in sport this year, where records keep falling on the biggest stages and athletes keep finding new ceilings. And while athletics and motorsport are different worlds, the hunger to go higher is the same, whether it is a bar at 5.91 meters or a checkered flag in Monza. Obiena goes home a champion again. The rain in Nagoya could not have washed that away.