Indian squash players Anahat Singh and Tanvi Khanna advanced to the women’s singles quarter-finals at the Asian Games 2026 on Thursday, setting up an all-Indian clash, while wushu exponent Roshibina Devi added another silver to India’s medal tally.
Third seed Anahat produced a dominant performance against Singapore’s Au Yeong Wai Iynn, winning 3-0 with scores of 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 to book her place in the last eight.
Tanvi also overcame a Singaporean opponent, defeating Au Yeong Wai Yhann 3-1. After dropping the opening game 5-11, Tanvi fought back to win the next three games 11-4, 11-5, 13-11 and set up a quarter-final meeting with Anahat.
The women’s singles squash champion at the Asian Games will also earn a direct qualification place for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, where squash will make its Olympic debut.
In mixed doubles, Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar also progressed to the quarter-finals after defeating fellow Indians Suraj Chand and Shameena Riaz 2-0.
The experienced pair took the opening game 11-7 before surviving a tighter second game 11-10. Suraj and Shameena fought back from 7-9 to level the game at 9-9, but Joshna and Velavan held their nerve to close out the contest.
Meanwhile, Roshibina secured her second consecutive Asian Games silver medal after losing to China’s Zhang Xiaoyu in the women’s Sanda 60kg final.
The Indian wushu player was beaten 0-5 in both rounds as Zhang completed a 2-0 victory. Roshibina had reached the final with a 2-0 semi-final win over Indonesia’s Thania Kusumaningtyas on Wednesday.
The silver marked another milestone for Roshibina, who also won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games before claiming silver at Hangzhou 2023. She thus became the first Indian woman to win medals at three consecutive Asian Games in wushu. Her campaign in Aichi-Nagoya also included a victory over 2023 world champion Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy of Vietnam.
India added another bronze through the men’s double sculls rowing pair of Satnam Singh and Salman Khan. The duo clocked 6:13.25 to finish third, behind China’s Yi Xudi and Nie Yide and the silver-winning pair of Mekhrojbek Mamatkulov and Pavel Sorin.
Satnam and Salman were second at the 500m, 1000m and 1500m marks but could not maintain their position during the closing stretch. They were briefly within half a second of the Chinese leaders before finishing third.
In the men’s singles sculls, Balraj Panwar narrowly missed the podium after finishing fourth. Balraj was second through the 1500m mark but was overtaken by Uzbekistan’s Shakhboz Kholmurzaev and Japan’s Tatsuya Sakurama in the final 500m.
Balraj clocked 6:54.80, finishing behind gold medallist Zhiwei Deng of China and missing out on a medal despite holding a sizeable advantage over Sakurama before the final stretch.
With Roshibina’s silver and the rowing bronze, India’s medal tally at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games rose to 14, comprising one gold, six silver and seven bronze medals.
