India had another rewarding day at the 2023 Asian Games on Friday, courtesy of their shooters. The Indian contingent won eight medals today, with five of those coming in shooting, whilst the others arrived in tennis, squash and athletics.
The day started off with a silver medal in the women’s 10m Air Pistol team event, courtesy of the trio of Divya TS, Esha Singh and Palak Gulia. The men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions team – comprising Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran and Swapnil Kusale – then secured India’s eighth gold medal.
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Divya TS, Palak Gulia and Esha Singh won a silver medal in women's 10m Air Pistol team event.
(Photo: PTI)
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The eighth gold medal of the 2023 Asian Games came in men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions team event.
(Photo: PTI)
Palak and Esha, from the silver medal-winning 10m Air Pistol team, also secured medals in the individual event, clinching a gold and a silver medal respectively.
From the men’s trio, meanwhile, Aishwary secured a silver medal in the individual event of men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions. It was Aishwary’s fourth medal in the tournament, having previously won a gold in men’s 10m Air Rifle team event and a bronze in men’s 10m Air Rifle individual event on 25 September.
In tennis, the men’s doubles pair of Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan won a silver medal, after losing their final contest against the Chinese Taipei pair of Hsu Yu-Hsiou and Jason Jung.
A bronze medal was added to India’s tally by the women’s squash team, comprising Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Anahat Singh and Tanvi Khanna, who lost their semi-final contest against Hong Kong.
The last medal of the day came in athletics, the the 24-year-old shot putter from Uttar Pradesh, Kiran Baliyan winning a bronze medal in women's shot put with a best attempt of 17.36m.
On the medals tally, India are currently placed fourth, with 33 medals in the bag – 8 gold, 12 bronze and 13 silver.
Here’s everything that happened today, across every event:
3x3 Basketball
India went down fighting in their last group-stage match against China, losing the game by a 15-18 margin. They will now take on Iran in a cross-pool shoot-out for a place in the quarter-final
Athletics
Race walker Priyanka finished fifth in the final of women’s 20km event, while in men’s 20km event, Vikash Singh finished fifth, with Sandeep Kumar getting disqualified.
An all-round impressive performance from Tanya Chaudhary sees her finishing seventh in the final round of women's hammer throw, with a best score of 60.50. Meanwhile, her Indian compatriot, Rachna Kumari finishes ninth with a best score of 58.13.
In women’s 400m, Aishwarya Mishra qualified for the final round by recording her season best timing of 52.73s, although Himanshi Malik could not earn a place in the next round.
A similar theme continued in men’s 400m, where Muhammed Ajmal was able to qualify for the final by recording a timing of 45.76s, but a timing of 46.29s was not enough for Muhammed Anas Yahiya to make it to the final.
The first medal from the athletics contingent came in women's shot put, where the 24-year-old shot putter from Uttar Pradesh, Kiran Baliyan won a bronze medal with her best attempt of 17.36m.
Badminton
In what was a mixed day for the Indian contingent, the women’s team suffered a 0-3 defeat in their quarter-final contest against Thailand. However, the men’s team defeated Nepal 3-0 to assure at least a bronze medal, ending a prolonged wait of 37 years.
Boxing
The Indian women pugilists shone bright, with Parveen qualifying for the quarter-final of women’s 54-57kg category, before Nikhat Zareen assured a medal with a victory in the quarter-final of women’s 45-50kg category. Nikhat, meanwhile, also sealed her place in the Indian contingent for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Lakshya Chahar, however, was defeated in the Round of 16 tie of men’s 71-80kg category.
Bridge
The Indian men’s team is currently in second position after 11 rounds, while after as many rounds, the mixed team is currently placed fifth on the standings. The women’s team is occupying seventh place after Round 7.
Chess
The Indian men’s team defeated Philippines in their first match of the team event, while the women’s team defeated Mongolia.
Esports
The Indian DOTA 2 team was handed 0-1 defeats by Kyrgyzstan and Philippines.
Cycling
The Indian men’s Madison team recorded a DNF (did not finish) in the final round.
Golf
After round 2, Anirban Lahiri is T9 in men’s individual, with Subhankar Sharma in T21, SSP Chawrasia in T29, KH Joshi in T29.
In women’s individual, Aditi Ashok is T2, Pranavi Sharath is T10, Avani Prashanth is T15.
Handball
The Indian women’s team was effectively eliminated, after losing their penultimate group stage game against China by a 30-37 margin.
Hockey
The Indian women’s team secured their second straight win by handing Malaysia a 6-0 defeat. Janneke Schopman’s team had six different goal-scorers, with Lalremsiami, Sangita Kumari, Vaishnavi Phalke, Nisha Warsi, Deep Grace Ekka and Monika Malik all getting into the score-sheet.
Squash
Following a bronze medal win from the women's team earlier today, the men's team confirmed their participation in a gold medal fight, courtesy of a 2-0 win over Malaysia in their semi-final contest.
Abhay Singh and Saurav Ghosal won their respective contests to help their team qualify for the final.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani men's team has also made it to a final, meaning we are set for an India-Pakistan gold shoot-out!
Swimming
Advait Page qualified for the final of men’s 200m backstroke, where he finished in the seventh position. Sajan Prakash finished fifth in the final of men's 200 butterfly.
Table Tennis
Manika Batra qualified for the quarter-final of women’s singles by beating Suthasini Sawettabut, while in men’s singles, both Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Achanta Sharath Kamal lost their respective fixtures.
In women’s doubles, Sutirtha Mukherjee-Ayhika Mukherjee pairing qualified for the quarter-final, although Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale were unsuccessful in their attempt.
In men’s doubles, Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar qualified for the next round, but Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran were defeated.
Tennis
While Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their gold medal contest, the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale qualified for the final by beating the Chinese Taipei pair of Hsu Yu-Hsiou and Chan Hao-Ching.
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