India’s controversy marred campaign at the 2025 World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany came to a close on Sunday with athletes from the country pocketing a total of 12 medals.
India finished their campaign on the 20th spot in the medal tally with two gold, five silver and five bronze medals apiece.
While the result was a far cry from India’s 26-medal, including 11 gold winning campaign in the previous edition back in 2023 at Chengdu, China, it is worth noting a majority of those medals back then came in shooting – a sport not part of the roster in Rhine-Ruhr.
In shooting’s absence, archery emerged as India’s most successful sport. The country won both its gold medal in compound archery.
Parneet Kaur and Kushal Dalal combined to win the mixed compound team archery – a discipline now a part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics roster – title to win India’s first gold at the 2025 World University Games.
Days later, Sahil Jadhav won the country’s only individual gold medal, winning the men’s individual compound archery title.
India also bagged a silver and bronze in archery with the men’s compound team and women’s compound team respectively. Parneet added a silver in women’s individual compound as well.
Apart from the medal wins, India also recorded multiple “best Indian timings” in swimming at the World University Games, whereas Dev Meena improved the men’s pole vault national record for a third time this season with a successful clearance of 5.40m in the qualification round.
List of Indian medallists at 2025 World University Games
Gold: Parneet Kaur & Kushal Dalal (mixed compound team), Sahil Jadhav (men’s individual compound)
Silver: Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav & Hritik Sharma (men’s compound team), Ankita Dhyani (women’s 3000m steeplechase), Seema (women’s 5000m), Praveen Chitravel (men’s triple jump), Parneet Kaur (women’s individual compound)
Bronze: Madhura Dhamangaonkar, Parneet Kaur, Avneet Kaur (women), Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar, Lalu Prasad Bhoi, MJ Dhondapathi (men’s 4x100m relay), Munita Prajapati, Sejal Singh, & Mansi Negi (women’s 20km team racewalk), Vaishnavi Adkar (women’s singles tennis), Badminton Mixed Team
Medal Tally
|
Position |
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
|
1 |
Japan |
34 |
21 |
24 |
|
2 |
China |
30 |
27 |
17 |
|
3 |
USA |
28 |
27 |
29 |
|
4 |
South Korea |
21 |
9 |
27 |
|
5 |
Italy |
14 |
10 |
19 |
|
20 |
India |
2 |
5 |
5 |
