For India, Day 13 of the 2023 Asian Games will forever be remembered, cherished and reminisced – for years and decades to come – as the day when history was scripted. It is today that India were assured of 100 medals, albeit the current tally might show 95.
The contingent won nine medals today, which included a synchronised mix of both reclaiming what was lost, and conquering new lands. With 95 medals – 22 gold, 34 silver and 39 bronze – India are third on the medals tally.
The medal haul on Friday commenced with yet another success story from the archery contingent. Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur & Simranjeet Kaur defeated Vietnam by a 6-2 margin in the recurve women's team bronze medal match.
Another medal was later added to the archery tally, when the men’s recurve team won silver. Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Tushar Shelke’s trio was defeated 1-5 by South Korea in the gold medal match.
In badminton, HS Prannoy finishes with a bronze in the men's singles badminton event after losing his semi-final 16-21, 9-21 to China’s Li Shifeng. Albeit, his campaign will be known for securing a medal whilst battling a back injury.
There was a rather unexpected medal in Sepaktakraw, where the Indian women's Regu team clinched their first-ever bronze medal. In the semi-final contest, they lost 0-1 to Thailand.
Sonam Malik became the third Indian wrestler to win a medal at the 2023 Asian Games. The 21-year-old from Haryana secured the bronze medal in women's freestyle 62kg category by beating China's Long Jia 7-5.
Kiran Bishnoi, who won a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in 2018, added an Asian Games medal to her cabinet. The grappler won the bronze medal in women’s freestyle 76kg category by beating Mongolia’s Ariunhjargal Ganbat.
The seventh medal of the day comes from wrestling again, with Aman Sehrawat bagging a bronze medal. The 20-year-old youngster, who had won a gold medal at the Asian Championships earlier this year, won a bronze medal in men’s freestyle 57kg category by beating China’s Liu Minghu via Victory by Technical Superiority (VSU), as the Chinese wrestler failed to score a single point.
The Indian men's bridge team, comprising Jaggy Shivdasani, Rajeshwar Tewari, Sandeep Thakral, Raju Tolani, Ajay Khare and Sumit Mukherjee, then secured India's 94th medal. They won a silver medal after losing out to Hong Kong in the final.
However, the highlight of the day was the Indian men’s hockey team, who won their fourth Asian Games gold medal. India reclaimed their lost crown in the most dominating manner plausible – by defeating the defending champions, Japan, by a 5-1 margin.
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh turned up to the occasion by scoring a brace, while the other three goals were scored by Abhishek, Amit Rohidas and Manpreet Singh.
Here’s how the medals tally looks after today:
Here’s everything that happened today, across every event:
Badminton
(Besides HS Prannoy)
The Indian badminton contingent kept on scripting history in Hangzhou. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in straight sets to become the first-ever Indian men's doubles pair to qualify for an Asian Games final. In the gold medal contest, they will be up against South Korea's Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho.
Canoe
Shikha Chouhan finished seventh in the final of women’s kayak, while Vishal Kewat occupied the same position in the final of men’s canoe.
Chess
After the penultimate round of team events, both the Indian men’s and women’s teams are occupying the second position in their respective categories.
Cricket
India qualified for the final in style, handing Bangladesh a nine-wicket drubbing. Bowling first, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s boys restricted the Tigers to a meek total of 96/9, with R Sai Kishore scalping three wickets by conceding only 12 runs. The target was chased down in only 9.2 overs, courtesy of a half-century from Tilak Varma and an unbeaten 40 from the skipper, Gaikwad. In the final, they will be up against a spirited Afghanistan team.
Equestrian
Yash Nensee was eliminated in the final of individual jumping event.
Ju-Jitsu
All of the four Indian participants were defeated. Rohini Kalam lost her women’s -52kg Round of 16 tie to Asma Alhosani, while Anupama Swain was defeated by Miao Jie. In the Round of 16 of women’s -57kg category, Angitha Shyju lost to Gaeun Geum, with Nikita Choudhary coming out second best against Udval Tsogkhuu.
Kabaddi
Both the Indian men’s and women’s team qualified for the final. While the women’s team defeated Nepal 61-17, the men’s side got the better of Pakistan by a 61-14 margin.
- 01/02
The women's kabaddi team defeated Nepal in the semi-final.
(Photo: PTI)
- 02/02
The men's kabaddi team had an easy win against Pakistan.
(Photo: PTI)
Roller Skating
In the ladies artistic single free skating short program final, Greeshma Dontara and Sai Samhitha Akula finished in the fourth and sixth positions respectively.
Sepaktakraw
(Besides the medallists)
The men’s team lost their last group stage match to Myanmar 0-2.
Soft Tennis
Aadhya Tiwary lost both of her matches in the women’s singles preliminary round, while Raga Sri Manogarbabu won both of her games.
In men’s singles, Jay Meena won both of his ties, although Aniket Patel lost one and won one game.
Sport Climbing
In the boulder semi-final of men’s lead and boulder, Bharath Kamath and Aman Verma finished in the 8th and 13th positions respectively. Meanwhile, in the lead semi-finals, Aman finished 7th, while Bharath finished 15th.
Wrestling
(Besides the medallists)
The two-time Asian Games medallist, Bajrang Punia will not be returning with a medal from Hangzhou. The wrestler lost his bronze medal contest in men’s freestyle 65kg category against Japan’s Kaiki Yamaguchi by a 0-10 margin.
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