Asmita Dey kicked off a historic evening for India at the 2026 Commonwealth Games with a stunning gold, India's first ever in judo at the CWG, before Harsh Singh added another just moments later. Yamini Mourya added a silver a few hours later. Before Glasgow 2026, India had won eleven medals in judo (5 silver, 6 bronze).
Asmita, 23 -- the daughter of a bicycle repair shop owner from Belonia, Tripura -- started as an 800m runner, even getting selected for district trials for the event, before a coach introduced her to judo. She rocketed up the ranks with multiple golds at the Khelo India University Games and the junior nationals. In 2022, she became the first judoka from Tripura to win an international medal for India, when she won bronze in the 2022 Asian Junior Championships.
At Glasgow, she was in sensational form. She started with a victory by Ippon (100-0 score, game automatically ending when she scored the ippon) over Scotland's Eva Ewing before beating another Scot in Summer Shaw with a 2-0 win.
In the final of the -48kg category, she trailed to Heidi Quach briefly (0-1) before coming back strongly to level it at 1-1 before winning by yuko, 2-1, in the golden score period (where the first point wins)
Speaking after the gold, Asmita struggled to hold back tears as she spoke about her late father. "I am from a very small village in Tripura. People there don't dream this big. But Papa always supported me," she said.
"My mother send me to training 10 days after he passed away because she said 'otherwise Papa will think I have stopped your dreams'..."
Now she stands where no Indian had stood before.
Soon after Asmita's win, Harsh stepped up to add to the tally. Another 23-year-old, the judoka from Delhi was introduced to martial arts at an early age before joining the Indian Army. A Havildar, he is part of the elite Army Judo Node, a specialised defence sports program that identifies and grooms top-tier athletes for international competitions.
What really flipped the switch was joining the IIS training program: they provided him with international coaches, advanced physiotherapy, and sports science support to complement his gruelling military training regimen, which drastically changed his trajectory.
On Friday, Harsh marched through the field: beating Chikondi Kathewara of Malawi and Alan Monthouel of Vanuatu by Ippon in the round of 16 and the quarterfinal, before landing a waza-ari against Australia's Pedro Neto to beat him 10-0 in the semis.
That domination continued in the final, where landed another Waza-ari against another Australian, Joshua Katz to win 10-1 and take India's second gold of the day.
Yamini, at 28 a veteran in comparison to Asmita and Harsh, won India's third medal in the last bout of the day
A multiple times national champion, the judoka from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, has been a regular competitor in the international circuit since 2022. Another IIS trainee under coach Jiwan Sharma, she raced through the field in Glasgow on Friday.
She started with an ippon against Ghana's Frema Agyei (100-0) before landing another against Donne Breytenbach of South Africa (100-0). Collectively she spent just two minutes and eight seconds on the tatami en-route the final.
The final was a hard fought affair, Yamini's defence holding strong against world rank 13 Acelya Toprak but after a mammoth match that lasted almost seven minutes, Toprak won due to Yamini getting three shidos (warnings for passivity), the third coming when golden score was active.
