Parul Chaudhary at Asian Games 2026: Results, Records & Medals

Parul Chaudhary arrived at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan as one of India's three returning individual athletics gold medallists from Hangzhou, alongside Avinash Sable and Tajinderpal Singh Toor. She entered three events on three successive days at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium: the 1500m, the 3000m steeplechase and the 5000m (see the full Asian Games 2026 athletics schedule).

Parul Chaudhary (born 15 April 1995 in Iklauta village, near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh) is an Indian distance runner and the national record holder in the 3000m steeplechase (9:08.67) and 5000m (15:04.26). She won 5000m gold and 3000m steeplechase silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, and followed it with bronze in both events at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

Parul Chaudhary's rise from a village near Meerut, where she once ran barefoot along paths through sugarcane fields, to becoming an Asian Games champion and police officer is one of Indian athletics' most inspiring stories. Known for a fierce closing kick and remarkable durability, she has pushed the national records in her events to levels no Indian woman had reached before.

Parul Chaudhary was born on 15 April 1995 in Iklauta village near Meerut, one of four children of Krishanpal Chaudhary and Rajesh Devi. She began competing in the 800m at school in 2011, then moved up to the 1500m and 3000m before settling on the 5000m and the 3000m steeplechase.

Her running earned her a job with Western Railway in 2015, which took her to Mumbai.

At the Hangzhou Asian Games in October 2023, Parul first won silver in the 3000m steeplechase in 9:27.63, behind Bahrain's Winfred Yavi. Less than 24 hours later she ran the 5000m final, trailed Japan's Ririka Hironaka in the closing metres and overtook her on the inside for gold. She became the first Indian woman to win Asian Games 5000m gold, completing a rare steeplechase and 5000m double at a single Games.

• 2019: 5000m bronze at the Asian Championships in Doha and silver at the South Asian Games in Kathmandu.
• 2022: Ran 8:57.19 for 3000m in Los Angeles, the first sub-9 minute time by an Indian woman.
• 2023 Asian Championships (Bangkok): Gold in the 3000m steeplechase and silver in the 5000m.
• 2023 World Championships (Budapest): 11th in the steeplechase final with a 9:15.31 national record, which also earned her Paris 2024 qualification.

Parul was the only Indian track athlete to compete in two events in Paris. She finished 14th in her 5000m heat in 15:10.68, just 0.33 seconds off her national record, and eighth in her steeplechase heat in 9:23.39, missing the final as only the top five advanced. It was a tough Olympic debut, but she used it as motivation for a strong 2025.

Parul lowered her steeplechase national record to 9:13.39 at the Doha Diamond League on 16 May 2025, then to 9:12.46 at the Asian Championships in Gumi on 30 May, winning silver behind Kazakhstan's Norah Jeruto. She also took 5000m silver in Gumi and competed at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. The Athletics Federation of India named her Best Female Athlete of the Year.

In June 2026 Parul lowered her 5000m national record to 15:04.26 at a meet in Nice, France. She then finished fifth in the steeplechase and 15th in the 5000m at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, before winning the 1500m in 4:20.45 at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar. At the Asian Games in Nagoya she capped the season with a new steeplechase national record of 9:08.67 and two bronze medals.

Parul's Asian Games 2026 campaign is complete, with bronze medals in the 3000m steeplechase and 5000m and fourth place in the 1500m. Her next race has not been confirmed yet; this section will be updated once it is announced.

Parul is one of Asia's leading women's steeplechase and 5000m runners and holds Indian national records in the 3000m steeplechase, 3000m and 5000m.

• Arjuna Award (2023): Conferred by President Droupadi Murmu at the National Sports Awards 2023 ceremony in New Delhi, in recognition of her Hangzhou Asian Games performances.
• Rani Laxmibai Award (2020): Honoured by the Uttar Pradesh government on Uttar Pradesh Day in January 2020 for her achievements in athletics.
• Government Job & DSP Post: Joined Western Railway in 2015, and was later appointed Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) with the Uttar Pradesh Police on 27 January 2024, taking up her post at the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Police Academy in Moradabad district.

She also won 5000m silver at the 2019 South Asian Games in Kathmandu, was named to the Forbes India 30 Under 30 list in 2024 and won the Sportstar Aces Sportswoman of the Year (track and field) award in 2024.

Parul trains at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru and shares the distance-running stage with Ankita Dhyani and Priti Lamba, who took steeplechase bronze in Hangzhou. At the 2026 Asian Games she was part of a squad that included Avinash Sable, Gulveer Singh and Jyothi Yarraji. Her main continental rivals include Bahrain's Winfred Yavi, who won both the steeplechase and 5000m in Nagoya, Kazakhstan's Norah Jeruto and Japan's Nozomi Tanaka and Ririka Hironaka.

Parul Chaudhary's career matters well beyond her medal count.

• The first Indian woman to win Asian Games gold in the 5000m (Hangzhou 2023)
• Medals in both the 3000m steeplechase and 5000m at two successive Asian Games (2023 and 2026)
• The first Indian woman to run the 3000m steeplechase under 9:10 (9:08.67, Asian Games 2026)
• The first Indian woman to run the 3000m in under nine minutes
• A serving DSP with UP Police who has shown that village athletes can reach the top of Asian athletics

From barefoot runs near sugarcane fields in Iklauta to a national record and two more medals at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Parul Chaudhary's journey continues to inspire, with more records still within her reach.