Tejaswin Shankar wins heptathlon gold at Asian Indoor Athletics Championships (AIAC) 2026

Key facts

• Tejaswin Shankar won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the AIAC 2026 with a championship record total of 5993 points.
• Tejaswin Shankar broke his own national record of 5650 points, set in 2021 in the United States of America (USA), and recorded the second-best score ever by an Asian athlete.
• Tejaswin Shankar’s victory ended a 16-year wait for an Indian heptathlon medal at the AIAC, the last being PJ Vinod’s bronze in 2010.
• India finished sixth in the overall medal standings with five medals, comprising one gold, two silver, and two bronze.
• Tajinderpal Singh Toor secured the silver medal in the men’s shot put with a season’s best throw of 20.05m, finishing behind Chen Chengyu of China who recorded 20.07m.
• Pooja won the silver medal in the women’s high jump with an indoor national record of 1.87m, sharing the rank with Nadezhda Dubovitskaya of Kazakhstan.
• Ancy Sojan, who won silver at the Asian Athletics Championships (AAC) last year, claimed the bronze medal in the women’s long jump with a 6.21m leap.
• J Aadarsh Ram opened India’s medal account at the AIAC 2026 by winning a bronze medal in the men’s high jump event.
• Tejaswin Shankar also holds the outdoor national records in the decathlon and men’s high jump.