Asian Games 2026: National Records broken by Indian athletes

The 2026 Asian Games saw India’s second-highest medal tally in the history of the continental games, finishing with 85 medals.

While the medal tally was a pale shadow of the 106 medals the country won in Hangzhou last edition, Indian athletes did manage to impress with a slew of national record performances in Aichi-Nagoya over the course of the last couple of weeks.

Here, we take a look at some of the national records set by the Indian athletes during the 2026 Asian Games.

Sawan Barwal

Sawan Barwal, perhaps, won one of the most unexpected medals for India at the 2026 Asian Games. He clinched a silver medal in the men's marathon, India’s first medal in the sport since 1982.

As he ended a 44-year medal wait, Barwal also clocked an impressive time of 2:11:37 to set the men’s marathon national record.

In what was only the second marathon of his career, Barwal bettered his own previous record set at 2:11:58 during the NN Marathon Rotterdam earlier this year.

Vithya Ramraj

Vithya Ramraj took down one of the oldest standing national records in Indian athletics when she ran a never-seen-before time in women’s 400m hurdles.

Vithya clocked 54.72s to win bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles, decimating the 55.42s run by the legendary PT Usha at the 1984 Olympic Games.

Vithya had previously equalled the 55.42s run during the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou three years ago.

Dev Meena

Dev Meena extended his national record-breaking spree in men’s pole vault at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

Though he finished way off the podium, his 5.50m clearance achieved something no Indian had ever achieved before.

Having first broken the national record last year with a 5.32m clearance, Dev has since raised the bar for Indian pole vault, bettering his own record one step at a time.

Parul Chaudhary

Parul Chaudhary was one of India’s most successful athletes at the 2026 Asian Games, and she did so by setting a national record as well.

Competing in a really fast women’s 3000m steeplechase final, Parul clocked 9:08.67 to win a bronze medal.

She bettered her own record of 9:12.46 set during the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships last year.

Mixed 4x100m team

The Indian mixed 4x100m relay team comprising Guridervir Singh, Sneha SS, Animesh Kujur, and Harita Bhadra clocked a fiery 41.06s for a bronze medal.

It broke the previous national record of 41.35s set during the 2026 World Relays earlier this year. Kujur and Sneha featured in that quartet as well alongside Ragul Kumar and Nithya Gandhe.

Rishabh Das

Rishabh Das was arguably India’s lone bright spot in swimming at the 2026 Asian Games.

The 19-year-old set multiple personal bests before eventually setting a new “Best Indian Time” in men’s 200m backstroke.

Rishabh clocked 1:58.77, bettering his own previous national record of 1:59.84 by more than a second.

Joga Purty & Deepu Gowda

Joga Purty broke her own women’s speed climbing national record at the 2026 Asian Games, clocking 7.28s.

Deepu Gowda also followed suit a day later, clocking 5.091s in men’s speed climbing a day later.