Aichi-Nagoya, 24 September (H.S.): Indian table tennis players continued their impressive run at the Asian Games 2026, with Manush Shah opening his men’s singles campaign with a victory, while the pairs of Sreeja Akula-Cinderella Das and Diya Chitale-Yashaswini Ghorpade also secured wins in their respective women’s doubles matches.

Manush Shah began his men’s singles campaign with a convincing 4-0 victory over Malaysia’s Wong Kyu Shin in the opening round. Manush won the match 11-9, 14-12, 11-7, 11-4.

In the women’s doubles event, the Indian pairing of Sreeja Akula and Cinderella Das made a winning start by defeating Mongolia’s Bolor-Erdene Batmunkh and Burenjargal Sanja 3-0. The Indian duo prevailed 11-5, 11-4, 12-10.

Earlier, Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade defeated Iran’s Setayesh Ilkhani and Masid Ashtari 3-0 in the second round of the women’s doubles event. The Indian pair registered a comprehensive 11-2, 11-2, 11-4 victory.

In athletics, the Indian quartet of Jai Kumar, Kiran Pahal, Manu T.S. and Poovamma M.R. advanced to the final of the mixed 4x400m relay. The Indian team finished second in its heat with a time of 3:16.23. China topped the heat in 3:15.97, while the United Arab Emirates finished third in 3:17.00.

In swimming, Aryan Nehra finished third in the men’s 800m freestyle B final with a time of 8:02.52. The B final was not the medal-deciding final and featured swimmers who had failed to qualify for the main final.

In the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, the Indian quartet of Benediction Beniston, Aneesh Sunil, Aakash Mani and Gitesh Shah finished 12th among 13 teams with a time of 3:23.51. The Indian team had finished sixth in its heat.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar