Indians grabbed four medals, including a gold through tennis player Sumit Nagal, on the concluding day to end at 11th place in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Nagal bagged the men’s singles gold medal in the tennis event as he outplayed compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-1 6 -1 in the all-Indian final.
In chess, India collected two bronze – in men’s blitz team and men’s blitz team under-23.
The pair of K Sasikiran and Surya Sekhar Ganguly lost to the Vietnam duo of Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son in the semifinals of men’s blitz team event to settle for a bronze.
Sasikiran drew with Le Quang Liem but Ganguly lost his game to Nguyen.
In the men’s blitz team under-23, the duo of Diptayan Ghosh and Vaibhav Suri lost to the Iran pair of Alireza Firouzja and Parham Maghsoodloo in the semifinals to be content with the bronze.
With 40 medals (9 gold, 12 silver and 19 bronze), India finished the Games at 11th. Deborah Herold, cyclist, was the star for Indian coningent, accounting for three silver medals. Hosts Turkmenistan topped the medals tally with 89 gold, 70 silver and 86 bronze, followed by China (42 gold, 32 silver and 23 bronze) and Iran (36 gold, 23 bronze and 59 bronze).
India were represented by more than 200 athletes in 15 disciplines in the Games.
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