Mumbai, Sept. 29 -- Murali Sreeshankar, India's big long jump gold medal hope, was hobbling around on a rain-soaked Monday evening in Nagoya. Elsewhere in the stadium, Rumesh Tharanga was thumping his chest after displacing an Indian not named Neeraj Chopra from the top of the javelin perch. Hours earlier, pistol shooter Esha Singh had fallen short of gold by the barest of shoot-off margins. A day before, long jumper Ancy Sojan and high jumper Sarvesh Kushare fell short by two centimetres and a countback, respectively. Squash pros Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh fell shorter still in their respective finals. The last couple of days has been a microcosm of India's 2026 Asian Games campaign: near-misses, crushing lows, commendable highs, and, above all, a glaring paucity of gold medals. As the ninth day of medals events wrapped up in Japan, India had only four top podium finishes, and none in individual events. In the Hangzhou edition three years ago, Indians collectively pulled together for a 28-gold haul in that 100-plus heady medal show. Even as medals continue to tick along this time, matching that gold count, it can be safely assumed with less than a week to the finish line, will be nearly impossible. That leaves India, currently 12th on the medals table with 45 medals (4 gold, 20 silver, 21 bronze) in danger of slipping back to continental returns from the previous decade. From the 10 gold medals at the 2006 Doha edition came an uptick of 14 at Guangzhou in 2010. From the 11 at Incheon in 2014 came a jump to 16 at Jakarta and Palembang in 2018. From the 28 at Hangzhou in 2023, there is bound to be a fall at Aichi-Nagoya in 2026. The kind where even reaching the 2018 gold volume will require a big push from here. It's not all doom and gloom, though. There's still shots to be taken and gold medal opportunities to be seized from an Indian viewpoint. Especially in cricket (men's) and hockey (men's), and probably in archery, wrestling, squash and boxing. Athletics still has one day of action left, and shooting has three. Shooting and athletics, incidentally, have witnessed the biggest drop in the gold medal pool from three years ago. SEE P13, 14...