Asian Games, day 13 round-up: India clinch silver in women’s hockey, bronze medals in sailing

India’s wait to add to the Asian Games women’s hockey gold medal it won in 1982 continued as Rani Rampal and company went down 1-2 in a closely contested match on Friday. This was, however, their first silver medal since 1998.

On the penultimate day of competitions, the euphoria of track-and-field gold rush was over but the hockey silver apart, India won a couple of bronze in the sailing events.

India eighth in the overall tally with 65 medals (13 gold, 23 silver and 29 bronze medals) – equal to its best-ever haul in 2010.

Here’s a round-up of the day:

Hockey

The Indian women’s hockey team failed to break its 36-year-old gold jinx after losing to Japan 1-2 in a keenly contested summit clash to clinch the silver medal.

The loss will hurt the Indians badly as a gold here would have guaranteed a direct qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Minami Shimizu and Motomori Kawamura scored for Japan through penalty corners in the 11th and 44th minute while Neha Goyal’s field goal in the 25th minute was the lone strike for India, who were aiming to win their first Asiad gold since 1982.

Boxing

Debutant Amit Panghal (49kg) continued his sensational run to make the final with a hard-fought win but an injured Vikas Krishan (75kg) had to settle for bronze after being declared medically unfit for his semi-final.

Amit was the lone Indian boxer to make the final in the ongoing edition, beating Philippines’ Carlo Paalam in a 3-2 verdict.

The 22-year-old, who won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, will be up against reigning Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the summit clash on Saturday.

Squash

Joshna Chinappa upstaged eight-time world champion Nicol David as the Indian women’s squash team outplayed defending champions Malaysia 2-0 to enter its second successive Asian Games final.

The Indian men, who also entered the event as defending champions, clinched the bronze medal after a 0-2 loss to Hong Kong in the semi-finals. Saurav Ghosal, who was not fully fit, and Harinder Pal Sandhu, lost to Max Lee and Leo Au, 0-3 and 1-3 respectively.

The loss came after the women’s team blanked the David-led Malaysia in the semi-finals. The team, comprising Joshna, Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Sunayna Kuruvilla, is now assured of at least a silver.

Table tennis

India’s sensational run in table tennis came to an end after Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Manika Batra lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the singles competition.

World No 33 Sharath Kamal went down fighting against 14th ranked Chih-Yuan Chunag of Chinese Taipei 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 16-14, 9-11.

Sathiyan, who led India to a maiden medal in 60 years with his two wins against Japan in the team event, lost to Kenta Matsudaira. He was defeated 11-9, 4-11, 9-11, 6-11, 10-12 in another round of 16 match.

Manika Batra won a game against world No 5 Wang Manyu but it was not enough to trouble the Chinese. She lost 2-11, 8-11, 8-11, 11-6, 4-11 in the women’s singles round of 16.

Sailing

India clinched three medals in sailing with Varsha Gautham and Sweta Shervegar clinching silver in the 49er FX Women’s event and Harshita Tomar claiming bronze in the Open Laser 4.7. Varun Thakkar Ashok and Chengappa Ganapathy Kelapanda won bronze with a total of 53 after race 15 in the 49er men’s event.

Other sports

India went down to Chinese Taipei in volleyball. In judo, Avtar Singh lost to UAE’s Ivan Remarenco in the Men’s -100kg round of 16. Rajwinder Kaur lost to Japan’s Akira Sone in the Women’s +78kg quarter-finals.