Iran's men's kabaddi team have been crowned champions of the 2026 Asian Beach Games after a commanding 44-31 victory over India in the Sanya final on Monday, denying the defending champions a back-to-back title and confirming Iran as the dominant force in beach kabaddi this cycle.
The Iranian squad, nicknamed Team Melli, completed an unbeaten run through the tournament. Their path to the final included convincing wins over Pakistan (38-28), Bangladesh (47-31), Syria (53-31) and Sri Lanka (42-29), with Iran's raiders combining clinical bonus-point hunting with a tackle line that repeatedly suffocated opponents on the sand.
The 44-31 final scoreline reflected the extent of Iran's control. India entered as the defending champions, and the Indian women had earlier secured gold to keep India's medal table healthy, but Iran's men set a tempo their rivals could not match. Iranian raiders rotated efficiently between toe-touches and bonus dashes, while the cover defenders denied India's super-tackle threat for long stretches.
The triumph adds a second gold to Iran's tally at the Sanya Games, building on Hassan Ajami Bakhtiarvand's earlier shot put title. It also extends Iran's record of repeatedly disrupting India's pre-eminence in beach kabaddi, a discipline India helped pioneer at international level but which Iran's depth has steadily eroded.
The sixth edition of the Asian Beach Games, hosted by Sanya from 22 April to 30 April, brought together athletes across 14 sports, 15 disciplines and 61 events. Beach kabaddi has been a fixture of the Games since their inception, and the 2026 final delivered the showpiece organisers had hoped for, with a packed crowd watching Iran chase down a final-period lead and seal the gold inside the closing minutes.
Iran's federation, supplying both the senior men and the women's outfit at Sanya, had publicly framed this tournament as a build-up event for the 2026 Asian Games in Japan later this year, where India will defend the men's and women's kabaddi titles they won at Hangzhou. On the evidence of Sanya, Team Melli will arrive in Japan as a credible threat in the standard mat format too.
For India, the loss is a sobering checkpoint. The men's silver does not blunt the women's gold, but it does land at a delicate moment for the kabaddi ecosystem: the Asian Games squads are being shaped at the high-performance camp at Bellary, and form lines from Sanya will be scrutinised. Coaches will note that Iran's bench strength, not just its first seven, broke India open in the closing stages.
The Asian Beach Games' kabaddi event also reinforced the sport's spread beyond the subcontinent. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Syria all featured competitively, with Iran's group-stage win over Syria, 53-31, the highest-scoring result of the entire competition. Beach kabaddi continues to gain a foothold across Asia, and Sanya 2026 confirmed Iran as its most consistent performer.
