Asian Games 2026: Esha Singh Silver, Pinkcy Balhara Bronze

Two Indian women returned from the podium at the Asian Games 2026 on 28 September 2026. Esha Singh won the silver medal in the women's 25m pistol individual event, and Pinkcy Balhara secured the bronze medal in the women's 78kg kurash event. The Prime Minister congratulated both athletes the same day.

The two medals at a glance

Esha Singh in the 25m pistol

Esha Singh finished second in the individual competition of the women's 25m pistol. The Prime Minister noted that she had put up a great score and that her shooting showed immense precision and composure, and he wished her many more successes in the years ahead. The 25m pistol is a precision and rapid-fire pistol discipline contested by women, and the individual event is separate from the team competition in the same discipline.

Pinkcy Balhara in kurash

Pinkcy Balhara took the bronze in the 78kg weight class for women in kurash, a grappling sport of Central Asian origin that is contested at the Asian Games. The Prime Minister said she had displayed tremendous grit and resolve through the competition, and expressed the wish that she would keep scaling new heights and bring further laurels in the times to come.

Why it matters for aspirants

Medal winners at a continental multi-sport event are a standard source of questions, and the pairing of the athlete, the medal colour and the exact event is what gets asked. For these two results a candidate should hold together four items in each case: the name of the athlete, whether the medal was silver or bronze, the discipline, and the weight class or distance that identifies the event. Kurash is the less familiar of the two sports, so its presence on the Asian Games programme is itself worth remembering, alongside shooting, where India regularly wins medals across pistol and rifle events.