Asian Games: Harita Bhadra wins women's 200m bronze by 0.01 seconds

Harita Bhadra won bronze in the women's 200 metres at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, 27 September 2026. Sportstar said the 23-year-old from Maharashtra clocked 23.20 seconds and finished one hundredth of a second ahead of Japan's Abigeirufuka Ido.

Singapore's Shanti Pereira took gold in 22.78 seconds. China's Chen Yujie took silver in 22.93 seconds. India's other finalist, Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland, finished sixth in 23.46 seconds, Sportstar reported. A Hindustan Times day wrap listed a women's 200m bronze for Haritha Bhadra, spelling the first name with an extra h, among results it counted that day.

Sportstar said Bhadra is only the sixth Indian woman to win an Asian Games medal in the 200 metres, after Roshan Mistry, Christine Brown, P.T. Usha, Rachita Mistry and Dutee Chand.

The Straits Times reported the final from Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya. It said rain fell during the race and that 22.78 seconds was a season's best for Pereira, who is 30. The paper said she is the first woman to win back-to-back 200 metres titles at the Asian Games. At Hangzhou in 2023 she had won the 200 metres gold and the 100 metres silver. That 200 metres gold, The Straits Times wrote, ended a 49-year wait for a Singapore gold at the Games.

The same report said Chen Yujie was quickest off the blocks, with a reaction of 0.15 seconds, and that Pereira passed her in the final stretch. Chen had beaten Pereira to the 100 metres gold on 25 September in a Games record time. Pereira told The Straits Times she had felt the earlier rounds: the 100 metres heats, semi-finals and final, and the 200 metres heats. She said: "I knew coming into today that it was my day and nothing in the world was going to stop me from getting it." She also said she had not been sleeping well, "probably from anxiety and just nerves," and that she had lane 7.

The Straits Times said she asked her coach, Luis Cunha, who usually watches from the warm-up track, to be in the stadium. She turned 30 on 20 September. The paper said a stress injury to her right fibula had made the year after 2023 difficult, and that before the final she had used a line from Singapore swimmer Gan Ching Hwee, spoken after the 400 metres freestyle silver on 22 September: "If I have a lane, I have a chance." Cunha told the paper he sees the coach's role as guiding the athlete. The reports used here do not include a quote from Bhadra.

On the same programme, Sportstar reported the men's 200 metres final. National record holder Animesh Kujur clocked 20.80 seconds and finished fifth. Thailand's Puripol Boonson won in 19.88 seconds, equalling the Asian record. The Straits Times said that mark matched China's Xie Zhenye, and that China's Huang Youwen was second in 20.45 seconds and Japan's Soshi Mizukubo third in 20.56 seconds.

A Sportstar photograph of Bhadra is from women's 200 metres heat 2 on Saturday, 26 September, not from the final.