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. From seven top-drawer finishes then, including two in individual events, there has been just one so far, with Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet providing the much-needed golden touch in the 10m air pistol mixed team. Track and field is still searching for its first Indian champion in Nagoya, after Hangzhou had six. In fact, five of the six athletics gold medals by Indians have not been defended. That includes men's javelin, in which Yashvir Singh (with a personal best throw) and Rohit Yadav combined to deliver a double podium finish for India though not a 1-2 like three years ago, and women's javelin. The other events were men's shot put (gold to silver for Tajinderpal Singh Toor), men's 3000m steeplechase (gold to 4th for Avinash Sable on an injury comeback) and women's 5000m (gold to bronze for Parul Chaudhary, who improved her national record in 3000m steeplechase). Shooting too couldn't hold on to its golden grip from 2023, especially in the women's pistol and men's rifle teams that appeared strong on paper in 2026. Other sports in which India did not manage to defend gold so far include badminton (men's doubles), squash (mixed doubles) and equestrian (team dressage). Both the kabaddi teams and the women's cricket team held their crowns and grabbed another gold. Of the 28 gold medals in Hangzhou, nine came in individual, four in doubles/mixed and 15 in team/relay events. In Japan, the golden trickle has largely been team-driven thus far. There have been individual feats and medals to applaud over the past week. Like Vithya Ramraj's 400m national record and Sawan Barwal's marathon effort, or Anahat Singh's swift first at 18 and Mirabai Chanu's at-long-last first at 32....