Toyohashi, Oct 3 (IANS) India’s wait for another Asian Games taekwondo medal will stretch on after the country’s three-woman contingent returned empty-handed from Aichi-Nagoya 2026, with the competition concluding at the Toyohashi Gymnasium in Japan on Saturday.
Kashish Malik, Jyoti Yadav and Rupa Bayor were India’s representatives across four medal events, but none could progress far enough to challenge for a podium finish. India’s last Asian Games taekwondo medal remains Surendra Bhandari’s bronze from Busan in 2002.
Kashish provided India’s deepest run of the Games, reaching the quarterfinals of the mixed individual virtual taekwondo event, which made its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya.
She began with a 2-0 victory over Hong Kong China’s Siu Wai Lam, winning the two rounds 800-500 and 400-0. Her campaign ended in the quarterfinals against Kazakhstan’s Rita Bakisheva, who eventually claimed bronze.
Kashish won the opening round 320-0 after Bakisheva took a 320-0 lead in the first round, but the Kazakh responded by taking the next two rounds 460-0 and 340-0 to seal a 2-1 victory.
The Indian had earlier also featured in the women’s -57kg competition, where she faced one of the strongest names in the draw. Paris 2024 Olympic champion Kim Yu-jin of the Republic of Korea defeated Kashish 2-0 (18-3, 17-2).
Jyoti’s campaign ended in the women’s competition at the round-of-16 stage. She was beaten 2-0 by Thailand’s Kannaluck Chuenchooklin, who won 15-4 and 14-2.
Bayor’s challenge came in the women’s individual event. She finished fifth in her eight-athlete semifinal group with a score of 7.6100, leaving her outside the top four positions required to advance to the medal round.
Vietnam’s Ngoc Tuyet Sang Chau took the final qualifying spot from the group with 7.9500.
Taekwondo has featured at every Asian Games since Seoul 1986, apart from the 1990 edition in Beijing. Yet India has managed only one medal in the discipline across that period, with Bhandari’s bronze in Busan remaining the country’s lone podium finish.
The conclusion of the Aichi-Nagoya campaign, therefore, leaves Indian taekwondo facing another four-year wait for an opportunity to end its long Asian Games medal drought.
–IANS
vi/