India’s Asian Games Badminton: Three Medals in Hangzhou, One in Aichi
Three years ago in Hangzhou, India won three badminton medals and the first Asian Games gold the country has ever had in the sport. In Aichi they won one, a men’s team bronze, and not a single individual medal. The interesting part is not the drop. It is how close most of the losses were.
Event
Hangzhou 2023
Aichi 2026
Men’s team
Silver, lost the final 2-3 to China
Bronze, lost the semi-final 3-1 to China
Women’s team
Out in the quarter-finals, 0-3 to Thailand
Out in the quarter-finals, 1-3 to Japan
Men’s singles
Bronze, HS Prannoy
Out: Lakshya Sen in round two, Ayush Shetty in the last 16
Women’s singles
No medal
Out: PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda in the quarter-finals
Men’s doubles
GOLD, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty
Out in the first round, same pair
Women’s doubles
No medal
Out: Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand in the quarter-finals
Mixed doubles
No medal
Out: Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto in the quarter-finals
Total
3 medals: 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
1 medal: 1 bronze
India’s badminton at the last two Asian Games
The gold that is missing
In Hangzhou, Satwik and Chirag beat South Korea’s Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho 21-18, 21-16 in the men’s doubles final. No Indian had ever won an Asian Games badminton gold before that night, in any event, since India first played the sport at these Games in 1974.
In Aichi the defence lasted one match. Seeded fourth, a month after winning the China Masters, they led Thailand’s Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Peeratchai Sukphun 11-5 in the opening game and took it 21-12. Then they lost 19-21 and 14-21, and the whole thing was over in 68 minutes, in the round of 32.
Five matches that went to a third game
India did not get taken apart in Aichi. Five times an Indian won a game and lost the match, four of them in matches that decided who would play for a medal.
Player
Round
Opponent
Score
Satwik / Chirag
Round of 32
Teeraratsakul / Sukphun (THA)
21-12, 19-21, 14-21
Ayush Shetty
Round of 16
Chou Tien-chen (TPE, world No. 5)
16-21, 21-19, 17-21
PV Sindhu
Quarter-final
Chen Yufei (CHN)
11-21, 21-18, 10-21
Unnati Hooda
Quarter-final
Akane Yamaguchi (JPN)
16-21, 21-14, 17-21
Kapila / Crasto
Quarter-final
Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping (CHN, world No. 1)
14-21, 21-18, 18-21
Aichi 2026 - the Indian losses that went the distance
Winning a game against Chou Tien-chen, Akane Yamaguchi or the world’s top mixed pair is not nothing. Losing the third one every time is a pattern, and patterns are the part of a match you can actually work on.
The same faces on the other side of the net
Asia’s top end barely moved between the two Games. Chen Yufei took women’s singles silver in Hangzhou and knocked Sindhu out in Aichi. Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping took mixed doubles bronze in Hangzhou and arrived in Aichi as world No. 1, where they ended Kapila and Crasto. Kodai Naraoka shared the 2023 men’s singles bronze with Prannoy, and in Aichi he was the man Lakshya Sen beat from 11-21 and 8-14 down in the team quarter-final. Kim Won-ho lost the 2023 doubles final to Satwik and Chirag; in Aichi he was the top seed with a different partner.
What changed is where India sits among them. In 2023 India was beating those players in finals. In 2026 India was beating them in the team event and losing to them, narrowly, in the individual draws.
The team result held up
India’s men have now been on the team podium at two Asian Games in a row: silver in Hangzhou, bronze in Aichi after the 3-0 sweep of hosts Japan and a 3-1 semi-final loss to China. China beat India both times, in the 2023 final and the 2026 semi-final, and did not win either title in 2026: Indonesia took the men’s team gold 3-2, and China took the women’s.
The new names are the reason to watch
Ayush Shetty was not in the 2023 squad. This season he has a Badminton Asia Championships silver, he beat Shi Yuqi at the World Championships in Delhi, he won the third match of the sweep of Japan, and he took a game off the world No. 5 in the last 16. Unnati Hooda took one off Akane Yamaguchi. Neither of them was expected to medal here. Both of them made the top of Asia play a third game.
How many badminton medals did India win at the Asian Games 2026?
One: bronze in the men’s team event. India won no individual badminton medals at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
How many did India win at the Asian Games 2023?
Three: gold in men’s doubles for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, silver in the men’s team event, and bronze for HS Prannoy in men’s singles.
Did Satwik and Chirag defend their Asian Games title?
No. The defending champions went out in the round of 32 in Aichi, losing 21-12, 19-21, 14-21 to Thailand’s Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Peeratchai Sukphun after winning the first game.
Who knocked PV Sindhu out at the Asian Games 2026?
Chen Yufei of China, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, in the quarter-finals, 11-21, 21-18, 10-21. Sindhu had beaten world No. 7 Tomoka Miyazaki 21-9, 21-13 in the previous round.
Has India ever won a badminton gold at the Asian Games?
Once. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the men’s doubles at Hangzhou in 2023, India’s first Asian Games badminton gold since the country began competing in the sport at these Games in 1974.
Who won the badminton team titles at the Asian Games 2026?
Indonesia won the men’s team title, beating China 3-2 in the final. China won the women’s team title.
Kreeda is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Badminton World Federation, the Olympic Council of Asia or the Badminton Association of India. Scores and results are as publicly reported at the time of writing.
