Shot-putter Tajinder Pal Singh Toor’s record-shattering gold gave a perfect start to India’s athletics campaign and lifted a relatively dull day, which saw three squash players pick up bronze medals in the 18th Asian Games.
In the medal standings, India were placed eighth with a compilation of seven gold, five silver and 17 bronze. Here’s the overall round-up.
Archery
India’s campaign in recurve archery came to an end as both the men and women’s team bowed out at in the quarter-finals. The women’s team lost to Chinese Taipei 6-2 while the men’s team lost to Korea 5-1
Athletics
Tajinder Pal Singh Toor led from start to finish as he powered his way to the men’s shot put gold. The 23-year-old set a new Asian Games record with his fifth throw of 20.75 metres.
Muhammad Anas and Arokia Rajiv qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s 400 metres. Anas running in Heat 1, clocked a time of 45.63 seconds and topped the list of qualifiers overall.
Rajiv, the bronze medal winner in 400 metres at Incheon four years ago, came second in Heat 4, finishing with a time of 46.82 seconds. In the high jump event, Balasubramanya Chethan qualified for the finals with a jump of 2.15m in Group B.
In the women’s 10000-metre final India finished outside the medal positions. And, Sreeshankar qualified for the finals of men’s long jump final with a clean jump of 7.83-metre. Hima Das qualified for the 400-metre semi-final.
Badminton
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal advanced to the women’s singles quarter-finals after beating their respective opponents in straight games. Sindhu outwitted local player and world No 22 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 21-12, 21-15 in 35 minutes after Saina dispatched another crowd favourite Fitriani, ranked 40th, 21-6, 21-14 in the second round.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, however, couldn’t cross the second round after their gallant fight ended with a 17-21, 21-19, 17-21 loss against Korea’s Choi Solgyu and Min Hyuk Kang in men’s doubles.
Boxing
Pavitra (60kg) advanced to the quarter-finals after outclassing Pakistan’s Rukhsana Perveen in a bout that did not go beyond the opening round. Pavitra, who is a former National Games gold medallist, was at her ferocious best in the contest, resulting in two knockdowns for Rukhsana in the first round.
Hockey
Gurjit Kaur struck twice in the last quarter as the India beat title holders South Korea 4-1 to register their third consecutive win and also book a place in the semi-finals. India scored three goals in as many minutes in the fourth quarter to emerge winners in the Pool B encounter after both the sides were locked at 1-1 till the 53rd minute.
Sepaktakraw
The Indian men’s sepaktakraw regu team lost to South Korea in a group match. India lost 0-2 (6-21 7-21) to South Korea in their opening men’s regu preliminary Group B match.
Shooting
A gold-medallist at the Commonwealth Games, 15-year-old Indian shooter Anish Bhanwala produced a below-par performance to finish without a medal in the men’s 25m rapid fire air pistol event. Another Indian in the fray, Shivam Shukla, suffered a washout and ended 11th with 569.
Squash
Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Joshna Chinappa had to be content with bronze medals in women’s singles after losing to their respective opponents. Dipika lost 0-3 (7-11 9-11 6-11) to defending champion Nicol David of Malaysia in the first semi-final. Joshna, too, lost in the semi-finals to Malaysian Sivasangari Subramaniam. She failed to get the better of her 19-year-old opponent, losing 1-3 (10-12 6-11 11-9 7-11).
Top seed Saurav Ghosal lost to Chung Ming Au of Hong Kong China 12-10, 13-11, 6-11, 6-11, 6-11 in the men’s singles semifinals.
Weightlifting
Indian weightlifters’ unsuccessful campaign came to an end as Vikas Thakur finished eighth in the men’s 94kg category competition. Thakur lifted a total of 335kg (145kg+190kg).
After two unsuccessful attempts, Thakur managed to lift 145kg in his snatch. In the clean and jerk, he successfully lifted 190 kg but faltered in his final two attempts of 197kg.
Other sports
India’s medal chances were also dented in golf after all four players shot over-par scores in the third round of the men’s competition. Rayhan Thomas (73), Aadil Bedi (74), Kshitij Naveed Kaul (76) and Hari Mohan Singh (77) endured disappointing outings.
The debut sport of bridge also delivered some good news for India as medals were assured in the men’s team and mixed team events. The two teams made the semi-finals of their respective competitions. After the qualification rounds, the men’s bridge team was placed fourth while the mixed team took the top spot.
With PTI inputs
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