Sports
Pincky Balhara takes kurash bronze; India on 38 medals
Livemint··28 Sept
India's Pincky Balhara won bronze in kurash at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya on Monday. She lost the semifinal 0-5 to Sumin Mo of South Korea before taking the medal. Balhara now holds two Asian Games kurash medals after silver at Jakarta in 2018. India sat 12th in the medals tally with 38 medals, including four gold.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Balhara is the only Indian athlete with two Asian Games kurash medals.
- India's tally stood at four gold, 16 silver and 18 bronze when the bronze was confirmed.
- Kurash remains a niche medal path compared with India's larger Olympic sports pipelines.
What's Happening
- Balhara lost the Nagoya semifinal 0-5 to South Korea's Sumin Mo before taking bronze.
- In 2018 she won silver in the under-52 kg final after losing to Uzbekistan's Gulnor Sulaymanova.
- She was 19 when she won that Jakarta silver eight years ago.
Her path into kurash
- Balhara's background includes judo gold medals at the Asian Cup and Asian junior championships.
- She did not make India's judo team for Jakarta and competed in kurash instead.
- Malaprabha Jadhav also won women's 52kg kurash bronze for India at the 2018 Games.
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