HANGZHOU(China): India’s seventh day at the Asian Games 2023 made for a big weekend haul, with the country outlasting traditional rivals Pakistan to clinch gold in men’s team squash while also blowing them away in a Pool-A hockey fixture.
India had a great Saturday by winning five medals including two gold, two silver and one bronze. India is now placed in 4th place with 38 medals (10 gold, 14 silver, and 14 bronze).
With their stellar performance, the Indian men’s squash team of Mahesh Mangaonkar, Saurav Ghosal and Abhay Singh clinched the first gold medal of the day, defeating Pakistan 2-1 in an intensely fought final.
India’s second medal of the day came after Indian tennis duo Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale bagged the gold medal in the tennis mixed doubles.
The Rohan-Rutuja duo struggled in the initial set of the match and lost the first set against Chinese Taipei’s En-shuo Liang and Tsung-hao Huang by 6-2. The Indian pair made a stellar comeback and later dominated the game to beat their opponents in straight two sets by 3-6, and 4-10.
In shooting, Indian duo of Sarabjot Singh and Divya Subbaraju secured a silver medal in the mixed 10 m air rifle pistol team event. With a total of 14 points, India fell just two points of gold to China, who secured a total of 16 points to get the top prize.
Amid the jubilation around the victory over the traditional rivals in men’s team squash, there were more celebrations in store in hockey.
India fired a whopping 10 goals past a hapless Pakistani defence to register its biggest-ever win over their traditional rivals in a Pool-A match. The gobsmackingly surreal match saw India running riot over their arch-rivals to register a thumping 10-2 victory.
Indian boxer Preeti Pawar confirmed her entry to the semifinals of the 54 kg women’s boxing event, not only ensuring at least a bronze medal but also securing a Paris Olympics 2024 quota for the country. She beat Kazakhstan’s Zhaina Shekerbekova in the quarterfinal clash 4-1, on the basis of the win by points.
Indian Olympic medalist boxer Lovlina Borgohain advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 75 kg boxing competition, assuring India of its third boxing medal.
However, it was a disappointing day at the weightlifting events as Olympic silver medalist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu could not get a podium finish in the women’s 49 kg, finishing fourth. She suffered an injury during her match. Weightlifter Bindyarani Devi Sorokhaibam finished fifth in the women’s 55 kg category at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Saturday.
In Athletics, the final of the men’s 10,000m was a double delight for India as Kartik Kumar bagged silver and Gulveer Singh clinched bronze.
Kartik won silver with a timing of 28:15.38s while Gulveer clocked 28:17.21s to claim the bronze.
Indian hurdlers Joythi Yarraji and Nithya Ramraj made it to the final of the women’s 100 m hurdles event while long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin made it to the final of the men’s long jump event at the ongoing Asian Games at Hangzhou on Saturday.
However, Skaters Anandkumar Velkumar, Siddhant Kamble, Aarathy Kasturi Raj, and Heeral Sadhu failed to secure a medal in the men’s and women’s roller skating finals.
Canoeing athlete Niraj Verma and team of Binita Chanu and Geetha Parvathy entered the final of the men’s 1000 m singles canoeing and women’s 500 m kayak double event.
In the semifinal of the men’s 1000 m singles canoeing event, Niraj clocked 4:31.626 minutes to qualify for the final.
The Indian women’s volleyball team failed to clinch a win against North Korea in the women’s volleyball preliminary round match. India lost the game by 1-3 against North Korea in their first match of the tournament.
India started off well and got the upper hand on the match after winning the first set by 25-23. However, later they lost in all three sets of the game.
Golfer Aditi Ashok scored 194, -22 to par following three rounds of individual competition to top the women’s standings on Saturday at the Asian Games.
In Table Tennis, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee beat World No. 2 China’s Meng Chen and Yidi Wang to assure a bronze medal in the women’s doubles event in Table Tennis as the Indian duo stormed into the semi-final. The Indian women’s pair triumphed 3-1 (11-5, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9) in the TT doubles quarter-finals.
In women’s singles, Manika Batra lost her quarterfinal match against China’s Yidi Wang by 2-4 while Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar failed to advance to the semi-finals of the men’s doubles on Saturday, losing 3-2 to Republic of Korea’s Woojin Jang and Jonghoon Lim. (ANI)