Tenacious rowers fought through exhaustion to redeem themselves and the first-time pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan delivered a tennis gold on India’s most successful day at the 18th Asian Games.
The overall tally of six gold, five silver and 14 bronze medals at the end of day six put India in the 10th spot in the table with China leading the pack by quite a distance, having already crossed the 100-medal mark.
Here’s the overall round-up.
Shooting
Heena Sidhu settled for a bronze medal in a topsy-turvy women’s 10-metre Air Pistol final. Wang Qian of China won gold with 240.3 while South Korea’s Kim Minjung (237.6) got silver. Heena, who scored 219.3, shot a near-perfect 10.8 with just three shooters left in the field but a 9.6 in the next attempt dashed her hopes of a better finish at the Jakabaring Shooting Range.
Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manu Bhaker, 16, finished fifth with a score of 176.2. Harjinder Singh and Amit Kumar finished fourth and fifth respectively in the men’s 300m Standard Rifle.
Tennis
Top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan got their first men’s doubles Asian Games gold medal. They defeated Aleksander Bublik and Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4 in 52 minutes.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran had to settle for a bronze after losing 2-6, 2-6 to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.
Kabaddi
The Iranian women emulated their male counterparts, who had shocked seven-time champions India in the semi-finals. The two-time champions was shocked 24-27 in a thrilling final as the firm favourites had to settle for silver.
Archery
Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam were upset by Iranian archers in the compound archery mixed team event. Iran beat India 155-153. Abhishek and Jyothi had won a World Cup medal at all four stages this year and were strong favourites to win a medal here.
Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das were knocked out of the mixed recurve event.
Badminton
Kidambi Srikanth was knocked out in the second round by world No 28 Wong Wong Ki Vincent. Srikanth lost 21-23, 19-21. HS Prannoy too followed suit going down 12-21, 21-15, 15-21 to Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen in a 65-minute contest, much to the dismay of Indian fans.
Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy became the first Indian women’s doubles pair since 1986 to reach the quarters. They defeated Malaysia’s Chow MK and Lee MY 21-17, 16-21, 21-19.
Hockey
India continued their dominant run in men’s hockey with a third consecutive victory in the tournament. The men in blue beat Japan 8-0 to top pool A with a goal difference of 51. Rupinder Pal Singh and Mandeep Singh scored a brace for the Indians.
Boxing
Manoj Kumar won via unanimous decision (5-0) to advance to the 69 kg round of 16. Manoj prevailed over Bhutan’s Sangay Wangdi to make the last-16 stage and set up a clash with Kyrgyzstan’s Abdurakhman Abdurakhmanov, who got an opening-round bye.
The Indian boxing contingent, though, suffered a massive setback earlier in the day as Commonwealth Games gold medallist Gaurav Solanki was defeated by Japan’s Tanaka Ryomei in the 52 kg round of 32 clash.
Squash
Dipika Pallikal Karthik registered a facile 3-0 win over Misaki Kobayashi of Japan to reach the semis and assure herself of a medal. Saurav Ghosal defeated India No 2 Harinder Pal Sandhu 3-1 in the quarter-final. The top seed is on track to improve his silver from four years back at Incheon.
Joshna Chinappa confirmed the third medal for India with a 3-1 win over Hong Kong’s Chan Ho Ling 3-1.
Gymnastics
Dipa Karmakar ends fifth in the balance beam final, with a score of 12.500. Chen Yile of China won the gold medal with a score of 14.600. India did not win a medal in artistic gymnastics.
Rowing
Indian rowers won a gold and two bronze medals, making up for the disappointment in the days gone by. The team comprising Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh clocked 6:17.13 to win the gold medal in men’s quadruple sculls.
Before landing the top prize, India bagged two bronze medals in the sport through Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Singh in lightweight double sculls after Dushyant started the day with a third-place finish in lightweight single sculls.
Weightlifting
Rakhi Halder endured a disappointing outing in the women’s 63kg event – missing all three of attempts to lift 93kg in the snatch section.
Other sports
Naorem Boynao Singh went down to Dumaan Dines of Philippines in the men’s 50-55 kg quarterfinal match, thus ending the Indian men’s pencak silat campaign.
In swimming, Sandeep Sejwal finished seventh in the men’s 50-metre breaststroke final. He clocked 27.98 seconds, while Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki won with a time of 27.07 seconds.
Aadil Bedi kept India in the medal hunt in golf, holding the third position individually and helping the team be second at the halfway mark.
With inputs from PTI
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