Kazakh track and field athlete Polina Ivanova took third place in the women's pole vault at the 2026 Asian Games with a result of 4.15 meters, infohub.kz reports.
Ivanova cleared 3.85 and 4.00 meters on her first attempts and got over the bar at 4.15 meters on her second. Her three attempts at 4.25 meters failed. Baranica Elangovan of India followed exactly the same script. Both vaulters were awarded bronze medals. Ivanova's medal was Kazakhstan's first in the women's pole vault at the Asian Games.
Fellow Kazakh athlete Anna Cherkashina cleared exactly 4 meters to finish seventh.
2026 Asian Games. September 25. Pole vault. Women. First place — Misaki Morota (Japan) with a result of 4.55 meters. Second place — Chung Niu (China) with a result of 4.50 meters. Third place was shared by Polina Ivanova (Kazakhstan) and Baranica Elangovan (India) — 4.15 meters each. Anna Cherkashina (Kazakhstan) finished seventh with a result of 4.00 meters.
Kazakhstan's Maksim Frolovsky, who surged into the lead at the start of the race, finished sixth in the 10,000 meters. His time was 30:22.06, nearly two minutes behind Bahrain's Birhanu Balew, who won gold.
The XX Summer Asian Games officially opened on September 19 and will close on October 4. Athletes from 45 countries are competing for 460 sets of medals. Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 Asian Games comprises 558 athletes in 35 sports.
On the first day of the Games, Kazakhstan won four gold medals. Cyclists Rinata Sultanova and Alexey Lutsenko became champions, along with karateka Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofia Berultseva. MMA fighter Yerkingali Burkutalin added a fifth gold to the team's tally, and his mixed martial arts teammate Kadyrbek Shynbaev made it six. On September 23, Lutsenko became a two-time champion of the 2026 Asian Games. The eighth gold medal was claimed the day before by rowers Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin in the men's coxless pairs.
After five days of competition, Kazakhstan sat fourth in the unofficial medal standings.