Nagoya, Sep 30 (PTI) India’s patchy Asian Games campaign finally found the momentum it desperately needed with compound archers sweeping the gold medals in all the team events, and the trap shooting combination of Neeru Dhanda and Kynan Chenai snaring the mixed gold to round off the country’s most successful day at the ongoing edition.
A couple of bronze medals from the boxing ring through Priya (60kg) and Kapil (90kg) and one from the wrestling mat through Sunil Kumar (87kg) took the overall tally to 60 (10 gold, 21 silver and 29 bronze), improving India’s overall position to seventh from Tuesday’s 10th.
The day well and truly belonged to the compound archers, who defended their men’s, women’s and mixed team crowns.
The women’s trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha and Prithika Pradeep kicked off the gold rush that culminated with Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav and Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru rallying to win the men’s team top honours.
In between, Chikitha and Sahil claimed the mixed gold and with that also secured an Olympic quota place for the country.
India thus became the first country to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in the compound mixed team event, which will mark the discipline’s debut in the Los Angeles Games.
It was a title defence done in style with the women’s team producing a sensational performance to outclass the Chinese trio of Wunier, Yue Wang and Fangyao Wei 238-234. The Indian total was a world record-equalling score.
Chikitha and Sahil, who walked away with two gold medals, showed nerves of steel to prevail over Korea’s Jungyoon Park and Choi Eun Gyu in the thrilling mixed team final, winning 158-157 after a shoot-off.
Kushal, Sahil and Ganesh then bounced back to outwit the Chinese trio of Jiahao Liao, Jinyi Liu and Jingyu Shi in the finals 238-237.
At the shooting range, Neeru and Kynan overcame a disastrous start to claim the gold with an Asian and Games record score of 34. Neeru thus became the ongoing Games’ most successful Indian athlete, having already clinched the historic individual trap gold and played a stellar role in the women’s team’s silver-winning performance.
In the evening session, the women’s hockey team produced another strong performance to advance to the final with 2-0 win over Korea and be assured of at least a silver, improving on the bronze it had settled for in the last edition.
Strong show in boxing; wrestling kicks off
===========================
The boxers have already surpassed expectations by bettering the overall count from the previous edition. As against four medals in Hangzhou, six are assured this time.
On Wednesday, last edition’s silver-medallist and Olympic bronze-winner Lovlina Borgohain edged reigning 70kg world champion Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan 3-2 in the 75kg semifinal to assure herself another shot at gold.
However, 20-year-old Priya, making her Asian Games debut, went down 1-4 to former world champion Yang Chengyu of China in a bruising 60kg semifinal.
Another Indian debutant, Kapil suffered a similar 1-4 defeat against reigning world champion Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan in the 90kg semifinal to settle for bronze.
India will thus have three boxers — Lovlina, Parveen Hooda (65kg) and Ankush Panghal (80kg) fighting for gold on Friday. Alongside Priya and Kapil, super-heavyweight boxer Narender Berwal will also go home with a bronze medal.
On the wrestling mat, Sunil Kumar became the first Indian Greco Roman wrestler to win two Asian Games medal after clinching a bronze in the men’s 87kg event. However, Nisha Dahiya (68kg) ended medal-less.
Sunil assured his podium place with a technical superiority win (9-0) over Philippines’ Roberts Callum Johnston.
Sunil had won a bronze in the Hangzhou Games, ending India’s 13-year wait for a medal in the Greco Roman style.
Medals secured in squash
=================
Indian men’s and women’s teams eased into the semifinals with convincing wins over Kuwait and Singapore respectively, assuring themselves of medals.
The Indian men, top seeds and defending champions, collected a 2-0 win over Kuwait in the quarterfinals. Veer Chotrani had to dig deep against Bader Almogghrebi before prevailing 12-10, 8-11, 11-0, 11-5 in a 34-minute contest.
Abhay Singh, India’s highest ranked player and silver-medallist in the singles competition, sealed the tie 11-3, 11-4, 11-8 win over Ammar Altamimi.
In women’s singles, the Anahat Singh-led team tamed Singapore 2-0. Starting the proceedings, Tanvi Khanna produced a gritty show, eking out a 11-6 4-11 15-13 11-1 win over Au Yeong Wai Iynn in a thrilling 32-minute opening singles match.
In the second singles, 18-year-old Anahat, who bagged a silver in the individual event, then thrashed Au Yeong Wai Yhann 11-7 11-3 11-4 in just 22 minutes to complete the victory.
Veteran Joshna Chinappa, who also won a bronze in the mixed doubles event, didn’t need to take the court.
Sumit lone bright spot in tennis
=====================
Sumit Nagal advanced to the men’s singles quarterfinals with a fluent 6-3 6-2 win over Uzbekistan’s Sergey Fomin but Dhakshineswar Suresh bowed out after losing his third-round match.
Nagal will next face third seed China’s Yibing Wu.
Dhakshineswar, meanwhile, went down 3-6 4-6 to sixth seed Chun-Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei in the third round.
India’s men’s doubles campaign also suffered a setback as N Sriram Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekar lost a fiercely-contested quarterfinal to China’s Fumin Chiang and Tianhui Ziang 7-6(4) 6-7(7) 8-10.
Later Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar also lost in the quarterfinal, going down 6-7 (5) 3-6 to Chinese taipei’s Yu-Hsiou Hsu and Chenjui Ho.
India’s performance in canoeing, esports, sepaktakraw and cycling was distinctly poor as none of the participants could progress beyond the preliminary stage. PTI PDS AM APA APS BS ATK SSC PM MRM MRM
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.