India’s Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar won the mixed‑doubles quarter‑final at the Asian Games in Nagoya with a 2‑0 victory over the Philippines’ Jemyca Aribado and David Pelino, scoring 11‑3 and 11‑5. The win secured a place in the semi‑finals and guaranteed India at least a bronze medal in the event.
Chinappa, who earned her first Asian Games medal in Guangzhou in 2010, is competing in her seventh straight continental Games. She will add a sixth medal to her tally alongside Senthilkumar. The pair will face Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yi and China’s Tang Ming Hong in the semi‑finals on Saturday.
The Aichi‑Nagoya Games carry extra weight, as the winners of the men’s and women’s singles titles will earn qualification spots for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where squash will debut. India entered the 2026 Games after a successful campaign in Hangzhou 2023, where the country captured five medals in squash, including two golds, one silver and two bronzes.
India’s men’s team won gold in Hangzhou, topped the mixed‑doubles podium, and earned a silver in men’s singles through Saurav Ghosal, while bronze medals were secured in the women’s team and mixed team events. In swimming, Rishabh Das qualified for the men’s 200m backstroke final with a time of 2:00.53, and veteran Sajan Prakash advanced to the 200m butterfly final with 2:00.94. Other swimmers, Aneesh Sunil and Dhakshan Shashikumar, missed the 400m freestyle final with times of 3:58.08 and 3:58.73 respectively.
