India achieved a complete sweep in Kabaddi at the ongoing Asian Youth Games 2025 in Manama, Bahrain, as both the boys’ and girls’ teams secured gold medals.
In the finals, both Indian teams faced off against Iran, but the matches unfolded in markedly different styles. The boys’ team endured a hard-fought battle, ultimately prevailing over Iran with a close score of 35-32. In contrast, the girls’ team delivered a commanding display, overwhelmingly defeating Iran 75-21.
The Indian girls’ team had dominated the group stage, finishing unbeaten with convincing wins against Bangladesh (46-18), Thailand (70-23), Sri Lanka (73-10), and Iran (59-26). The top two teams from this round-robin phase qualified directly for the final.
Similarly, the boys’ team went through the competition without a single loss, recording emphatic victories over Bangladesh (83-19), Sri Lanka (89-16), Pakistan (81-26), Iran (46-29), the host nation Bahrain (84-40), and Thailand (85-30) en route to their gold medal triumph.
India’s medal haul was further enhanced by strong performances in taekwondo and athletics. In taekwondo, Debasish Das advanced to the semi-finals of the boys’ individual recognised poomsae event, where he defeated Bangladesh’s Tahib Hossan Osman and Mongolia’s Amar Amgalan, before falling to China’s Gao Zixuan and claiming bronze. In the mixed pair recognised poomsae category, Yashwini Singh and Shivanshu Patel also secured bronze after their semi-final defeat to Thailand.
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On the athletics track, Ranjana Yadav kicked off India’s medals with a silver in the girls’ 5000m walk, recording a time of 24:25.88s, finishing behind China’s Liu Shiyi who clocked 24:15.27s. Riya Rathore placed fourth in the same race. Jasmine Kaur took bronze in the girls’ shot put with a throw of 14.86m, and Shourya Ambure won silver in the girls’ 100m hurdles, achieving a personal best time of 13.73s.
Thanks to the Kabaddi successes, India’s overall medal count at the Games increased to 10 medals — consisting of two gold, three silver, and five bronze. A contingent of 222 Indian athletes is participating in the continental event, which is scheduled to conclude on October 31.
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