India’s medal hunt continues at the Hangzhou Asian Games. India bagged two gold, two silver and five bronze on Day 10, taking its overall tally to 69 medals – 15 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze. The country currently stands at the 4th position on the scoreboard.
Once again, Athletics takes the centre stage for India in the evening session. The latest gold was won by Annu Rani in the women’s javelin throw final. She registered her best throw at 62.92m in her fourth attempt, overtaking all other contestants. This was followed by Tejaswin Shankar’s historic silver in men’s decathlon. The last men’s decathlon medal in Asian Games was in 1974 by Vijay Singh Chauhan. He also broke the national record set by Bharatinder Singh in 1974 to score 7666 points today. Narender Berwal lost the men’s 92kg semifinal in boxing, obtaining the bronze. Berwal put up a brave front against Kazakhstan’s Kamshybek but could not manage to overtake the Kazakh.
In Men’s Triple Jump, India’s Praveen Chithravel won the bronze. He registered his best jump in the first round itself at 16.68m. In the men’s 800m race, Mohammed Afsal made the country proud by winning the silver medal for India. In the women’s 5000m race, India’s Parul Chaudhary clinched the gold. She overtook Japan’s Ririka Hironaka in the final few metres of the race. Furthermore, in the women’s 400m hurdles, Vithya Ramraj made the country proud by winning the bronze, clocking in at 55.68 seconds.
In women’s 54kg boxing semi-final, Preeti Pawar won the bronze medal, falling in the footsteps of Nizhat Zareen. A disappointing performance by Pawar led to shocking defeat in all 5 rounds against Chang Yuan of China. In the 75 kg category, boxer Lovlina Borgohain confirms a berth at the Paris Olympics next year. The judges ruled in favour of Lovlina in a bout against Thailand’s Baison Maneekon by 5-0. She will now fight to secure the gold in the final.
In men’s canoe double 1000m, India’s Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh Salam have picked up a bronze medal with a finish time of 3:53.329. It is India’s second canoe medal in Asian Games history after the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima where Johnny Rommel and Siji Kumar Sadanandan won a bronze.
In Mixed Doubles Squash Competition, two Indian pairs advanced with dominant wins over their respective opponents in the pool matches at the Asian Games today. In squash semifinals, Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh defeated South Korea’s Yang Yeonsoo and Lee Dongjun by 2-1. Coincidently, in quarterfinals, Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu beat Philippines’ Jemyca Aribado and Robert Andrew Garcia, also by 2-1. In the Men’s Singles, Saurav Ghosal proceeded to the semi final by defeating Japan’s Ryunosuke Tsukue 3-0. This raises India’s hopes of gaining more medals in squash.
In archery semi-final, Abhishek Verma won by a margin of two points against South Korea’s Joo Jaehoon. He will next play the winner of the other semi final, Ojas Pravin Deotale, in the gold medal match on Saturday, October 7 at Hangzhou. That essentially confirms both gold and silver for India.
Earlier today, HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu won their respective men’s singles matches while Treesa Jolly- Gayatri Gopichand and Tanisha Crasto- Ashwini Ponnappa also made the women’s doubles round of 16. Ashmita Chaliha was the only Indian badminton player to get knocked out in the round of 32 today.