• India clinches men’s individual, team gold; women’s team gets bronze at IAU Asia Championships Japan

• Geeno Antony gets individual silver, Saurav Ranjan bronze

Ultrarunners Amar Singh Devanda and Tenzin Dolma of India smashed the individual national records in men’s and women’s 24-hour ultrarun at the IAU 24 Hour Asia & Oceania Championships 2026 held at Hirosaki, Japan, on May 23-24, 2026.

The Indian men’s team also topped the charts and secured a gold medal in the event and the women’s team finished with bronze medal, IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) said in its website. Indian male ultrarunners covered a combined distance of 815.833 kilometres to win the gold medal. (The total of the first three leading runners of a team is considered for the ranking as per IAU rules).

This is the third time that Indian male ultrarunners as a team have emerged champions in IAU events, the previous two times being in 2022 and 2024.

At the Hirosaki event, Amar broke his own national record of 272.537 km set in April 2024, to set a new national record of 282.881 km.

In the women’s run, India’s Tenzin Dolma smashed the previous national record of 217.327 km set by Sunita Subba in France in 2025, to set the new record of 228.939 km. Tenzin finished in the fourth position among women runners.

At Hirosaki, the national record for 12-hour run for both men and women were rewritten, according to Santhosh Padmanabhan, the manager and coach of the Indian ultrarunning team.

Indian men swept the individual podium positions winning the gold, silver and the bronze medals. Geeno Antony secured silver medal with a distance of 272.894 km and Saurav Ranjan the bronze with a distance of 260.058 km.

In the women’s individual race, Miho Nakata of Japan won the gold with a distance of 261.170 km. She had briefly held the world record of 270.363 km for women’s 24-hour run before it was broken by Sarah Webster of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (278.622 km) at the IAU World Championships, France, 2025.

Amar Singh Devanda (Picture from another event)

The individual silver medal was won by two Australian runners – Jenny White and Carrie Geeson – who crossed the 24-hour duration with a distance of 241.229 km each.

Out of the 11 athletes from India, eight runners were able to secured new personal bests, Santhosh said.

Tenzin Dolma (Picture from another event)

Team Performances

In the women’s team performance, Japan won the gold covering a combined distance of 707.357 km. Australia won the silver with a distance of 684.450 km and India won the bronze with a distance of 667.722 km.

In the men’s team performance, Japan secured the silver medal with a combined distance of 754.726 km and Australia the bronze with a distance of 732.525 km.

(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)

(Inputs from IAU Website) 

(Photos courtesy Indian team)