Asian Games: Toor takes shot put silver, Prachi Choudhary 400m bronze

Tajinderpal Singh Toor won silver in the shot put at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, 26 September 2026. His best throw was 20.64 metres, on his fifth attempt. Hindustan Times placed the event at Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on a wet evening. The Hindu called the stadium Paloma Mizuho.

Iran's Mohammadreza Tayebise, also styled Tayebise Mohammadreza by Hindustan Times, took the lead with a second-round throw of 20.81m. That broke Toor's Games record of 20.75m from 2018. Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Tolu finished third with 20.48m. The Hindu said Tolu had moved into second for a time, and that Karanveer Singh was 10th with 18.40m.

Toor told PTI, quoted by Hindustan Times from Nagoya: "I was aiming for a hat-trick of gold medals. My body was feeling good and I was going strong. I was confident that I can throw my best till the sixth attempt and achieve 21m. So, I am a bit disappointed with my performance." Hindustan Times called him the two-time defending champion, with golds from Jakarta in 2018 and Hangzhou in 2022, and said he had left the Glasgow Commonwealth Games without a medal.

Prachi Choudhary took bronze in the women's 400 metres in 53.21 seconds. Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, Paris Olympics silver medallist and a four-time world championships medallist, won in a Games record of 49.20. Iran's Zahra Zarei Manoujan was second in 52.38. Kiran Pahal was fifth in 53.41.

The Hindu also had Karthik Unnikrishnan sixth in the triple jump at 16.02m, and Parul Chaudhary fourth in the women's 1,500m in a personal best of 4:09.46. In the men's 400m, Hindustan Times timed T.K. Vishal's fifth place at 45.35 seconds, against his national record of 44.98 from May. The Hindu timed that fifth place at 45.48. Thailand's Joshua Atkinson won in a personal best of 44.90, Suleiman Abdulrahman of the UAE was second in 44.99, and Japan's Yuki Nakajima third in 45.22.

Hindustan Times reported the qualifiers. Gulveer Singh, Friday's 10,000m silver medallist, made the 1,500m final in 3:45.79, third in his heat behind Qatar's Ibrahim Chuot (3:45.54) and Japan's Mori Nagoya (3:45.66). Animesh Kujur won his 200m heat in 21.10 and ran 20.81 in the semi-final, behind Thailand's Puripol Boonson (20.10). His national record is 20.32. Harita Bhadra and Unnathi Ayyappa Bolland reached the women's 200m final. Nandhini Kongan reached the 100m hurdles final after Jyothi Yarraji did not start.

Tejaswin Shankar led the decathlon after day one with 4,338 points, Hindustan Times said: 2.18m in the high jump, 7.53m in the long jump, 10.98 in the 100m, 13.16m in the shot put and 48.59 in the 400m. Chen Xinghua was on 4,250. Yuma Maruyama was 150 points further back. Season's bests in that report were 8,321 for Maruyama, 8,057 for Shankar at the Inter-State meet, and 8,037 for Chen. Hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1,500m were still to come.

Jyothi Yarraji, 100m hurdles silver medallist at the previous Games, withdrew from her heat with pain in the warm-up. Praveen Chithravel, the national record holder, finished a first triple-jump attempt, then went down holding his left leg and was taken off in a wheelchair. The Hindu said both, along with high jumper Sarvesh Kushare, had filed medical certificates and were cleared late. Yarraji and Chithravel had also skipped the last Indian Athletics Series meet in Delhi, 15 days earlier. The Athletics Federation of India said on X, via Hindustan Times, that Jyothi "was fit and trained fully" and that the coaches withdrew her after she felt discomfort in the warm-up, because "her long-term fitness comes first." It said Chithravel had completed his training and that "the decision to withdraw was taken by the athlete himself."

What's next

Hindustan Times said Gulveer Singh's 1,500m final was due on Monday and his 5,000m final on Tuesday, and noted the open question of whether he could handle both.