Like Saturday, the best performance of the day came in the evening when Hima Das, the 18-year-old sprinting sensation bettered the national record for the second time in two days to clinch the women’s 400m silver medal.
Fellow athletes Muhammad Anas (in men’s 400m) and Dutee Chand (in women’s 100m) emulated Hima’s feat in getting the silver medals.
It was a day when India counted the silvers, a total of five, even though there was no gold in the tally. The country took the ninth spot in the overall standings with 36 medals to its credit, including seven gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze medals.
Here’s the overall round up:-
Badminton
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are on track for a gold medal showdown after their quarter-final victories ensured India’s first ever women’s singles medals at the Asiad.
First it was Saina, who ended a 36-year-old wait for a singles medal following a 21-18, 21-16 win over world No 5 Ratchanok Intanon in a 42-minute quarter-final.
Sindhu then fought past world number 12 Nitchaon Jindapol 21-11, 16-21, 21-14 in the other quarter-final.
Athletics
Hima Das won the silver medal, finishing second in the 400m final, clocking 50.79s. She broke her own National Record (51.00) which she had set in the semis on Saturday. Muhammed Anas bagged the silver in men’s 400m clocking 45.69s.
Dutee Chand missed out on a gold medal by 0.02 seconds and won the silver by 0.01 second, clocking 11.32s.
India’s Anu Raghavan and Jauna Murmu qualified for the women’s 400m hurdles final. Anu finished third in her heat with 56.77 seconds.
The 20-year-old Santhosh Kumar and Ayyasamy Dharun made it to the men’s 400m hurdles final.
Sreeshankar missed out on a long jump medal with a best effort of 7.95m, finishing a creditable sixth.
Govindan Lakshmanan was first declared as a bronze medalist in men’s 10000m final with a timing of 29:44.91. But he was later disqualified as, according to the officials, he had stepped out of the track during one of the laps.
Archery
The India’s men’s and women’s compound archery teams both booked their place in the final of their respective semi-finals. They will take on top seeds South Korea in their finals on Tuesday.
Shooting
All four of India’s skeet shooters missed out on making the finals of both the men’s and women’s events, as shooting competitions came to a close. India ended their campaign at the Games with nine medals – two gold, four silver and three bronze making it India’s most successful sport at this Asiad so far.
Boxing
Former world silver-medallist Sarjubala Devi advanced to the quarter-finals but veteran Manoj Kumar was ousted in the second round. Shiva Thapa, a three-time Asian Championships medallist and a world championships bronze-winner, faced two knockdowns before losing the bout with the referee stopping play.
Hockey
Defending champions India continued their unbeaten run and beat South Korea 5-3 in a Pool A match to storm into the semi-finals of the men’s hockey competition.
Rupinder Pal Singh (1st minute), Chinglensana Singh (4th), Lalit Upadhyay (15th), Manpreet Singh (49th) and Akashdeep Singh (55th) scored for India, while Korea’s goals came from the sticks of Manjae Jung (33rd, 35th) and Jonghyun Jang (59th).
Sepaktakraw
India lost their second men’s regu group match, to Malaysia 0-2. They had lost to Korea by a similar margin on Saturday. India later beat China, but that was an inconsequential match.
Table tennis
The table tennis contingent started its campaign with victories against Qatar and Iran in the women’s team events. Manika Batra and company, however, lost to China. The men’s team, meanwhile, defeated UAE and then lost to Chinese Taipei narrowly.
Equestrian
Fouaad Mirza became the first Indian to win an individual equestrian medal at the Asian Games since 1982. He finished behind Japan’s Oiwa Yoshiak in the eventing individual event, clinching the silver medal.
The Indian team, comprising Mirza, Jitender Singh, Akash Malik and Rakesh Kumar, also won a silver in the same competition with a combined score of 121.30.
Other sports
Indian golfers frittered away a good start with a poor third round and then followed it up with a modest show to finish seventh at the men’s team event.
India, who were second and in contention for a medal at the halfway stage of the tournament, came a cropper on third day when none of the four players could register a sub-par round. The same happened on the final day and it was curtains for them.
The debut sport of bridge than gave India a couple of bronze medals – in the men’s team and the mixed team events.
For all of India’s results on day eight, head here.
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