Day 4 at the World University Games 2025 in Rhine-Ruhr brought a mix of heartbreaks and history for the Indian contingent, ultimately ending with a moment of celebration: India clinched its first-ever badminton medal at the Universiade.
The day began with early morning fencing and taekwondo bouts and wrapped up late at night with swimming semifinals featuring star Olympian Srihari Nataraj.
The highlight of the morning came when India’s men’s sabre team defeated Sweden 45-28 to reach the Round of 16, thanks to consistent performances by Abhay Shinde and Aditya Angal, who both remained unbeaten until that stage.
Parallelly, the women’s epee team comfortably overcame Cambodia 45-19 to book a clash with hosts Germany. In taekwondo, Deepanshu opened with a solid victory over Denmark’s Ricki in the Round of 32 before falling in the Round of 16 to Chinese Taipei’s Kuei-an. Unfortunately, other taekwondo athletes like Jyoti Yadav, Vinay, and Twisha exited early.
In the swimming pool, all eyes were on Srihari Nataraj as he began his campaign in the 50m backstroke heats, clocking 25.59s a time good enough to place him among the top 16 semifinalists.
His teammate Dhyaan clocked 26.94s, finishing 35th overall. In the women’s 100m butterfly, Nina Venkatesh and Nilabjaa Ghosh recorded 1:04.49 and 1:05.52 respectively, which weren’t enough to progress beyond the heats.
Elsewhere, in fencing, the men’s sabre team found the going tough against South Korea in the Round of 16, eventually losing 11-45. The women’s epee team faced a similar fate, bowing out to Germany 21-45.
The morning also saw Indian table tennis players open on a mixed note. In women’s singles, Suhana Saini, Pritha Vartikar, and Sayali Wani secured victories, while Taneesha, Devarsh, Ayaz, and Chitwan faced defeats in their respective matches.
Medal breakthrough and near misses: Srihari’s record, basketball struggles, and tennis exits
As the day progressed, Indian hopes peaked during the badminton mixed team semifinal clash against Chinese Taipei. The tie started with Sathish Kumar narrowly losing in men’s singles, but Devika delivered a strong upset over WR74 Ching Ping Huang in straight games (15-10, 15-10) to level the contest at 1-1. Despite the spirited comeback, the men’s doubles pair of Sathish and Saneeth fell short against Chen/Lin, and India eventually lost the tie 1-3. Still, this meant India secured its first-ever badminton medal a bronze in the history of the World University Games, a significant milestone for Indian badminton.
In swimming, Srihari returned to action in the 100m freestyle heats, producing a remarkable swim to clock 49.46s, breaking the 17-year-old national record set by Virdhawal Khade (49.47s at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games). This effort qualified him for the semifinals, where he later clocked 49.56s, finishing 15th overall and missing out on the final by about half a second.
The long day didn’t end there for Srihari. Late at night, he competed in the 50m backstroke semifinal, improving to 25.39s from his heat performance but finishing 11th overall just 0.04s shy of the cutoff for the final. It was a heart-breaking near miss but showcased his resilience, racing four times in a single day across two events.
Indian basketball teams continued to struggle. The women’s team lost heavily to Finland 35-117 in the group stage, while the men faced Romania after their earlier defeat to the USA. Despite fighting back with a better second quarter (14-18), India lost 73-108, with Lokesh and Ishan each scoring 16 points.
In tennis, the women’s doubles team of Saumya and Rutuparna exited the tournament after losing 1-6, 1-6 to Germany’s Sina and Gina in the Round of 16. There was brighter news in mixed doubles, where Vaishnavi and Atharva defeated the Colombian pair Angie and Camilo 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the Round of 16.
In swimming’s morning session, India’s women in the 200m breaststroke Divyanka and Anushka finished 29th and 35th out of 38 swimmers respectively. The Indian team did not start in the 4x200m freestyle relay, ending the morning session on a quieter note.
In summary, Day 4 was about Srihari Nataraj’s brilliance, a historic badminton bronze, and scattered wins across tennis and fencing that kept the Indian flag flying. While the heartbreak of near misses lingered, the day also delivered moments that promise a brighter future: a swimmer rewriting national records, a badminton team entering history books, and a contingent fighting across disciplines with determination.
As the Games continue, the hope now is that this breakthrough medal sparks more podium finishes for India.
