J Aadarsh Ram wins India's first-ever men's high jump medal at Asian Indoor Athletics C'ships

The Indian athletics contingent had a disappointing start to their 2026 Asian Indoor Championships, with Praveen Chithravel finishing fourth and Manikanta Hoblidhar getting disqualified in Tianjin, China, on Friday.

But later in the day, J Aadarsh Ram redeemed the contingent after winning India's first-ever men's High Jump medal at the Asian Indoor Championships.

The 28-year-old finished third in the final with a leap of 2.19m to open India's medal account in China with a bronze medal. Japan's Seko Yuto won the gold with 2.23m.

Aadarsh also tried to clear the 2.23m mark, which could have been a new personal best for him, but he failed all three attempts and settled for bronze only.

A disappointing outing for Praveen Chithravel

Praveen had a below-par start to the season as he missed out on the men's triple jump podium with a modest leap of 16.22m, finishing 4th behind three Chinese athletes.

He started with a 15.66m leap, which he marginally increased in the following jumps before the 16.22m on his final attempt. He was 0.23m short of the bronze medalist Ma Yinglong, who registered a best effort of 16.45m.

On the other hand, one of India's top sprinters, Manikanta Hoblidhar, faced a disqualification in the preliminary round of the men's 60m due to a false start.

He received a direct red card after officials called a restart in Heat-3 for a false start, ending his campaign in China without running a single race.

This was slated to be the first 60m indoor race for India's 100m specialist, but now he will have to wait a little more to record his first timings in the event.

In women's shot put, India's Yogita also missed out on the podium, finishing 4th behind the three Chinese with the best throw of 15.33m from her second attempt.  

On the other hand, pentathlete KA Anamika finished in tied 4th place with Uzbekistan's Norboeva Ugiloy at 3923 points despite having a top-2 finish in 800m with a time of 2.21:72s.

She couldn't find a top-3 placing in any of the other four events - 60m Hurdles (8.97s), High Jump (1.70m), Shot Put (10.74m), Long Jump (5.75m) - and hence missed out on Poidium.