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India clinched a bronze medal in recurve women’s team archery event at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Friday. It is India’s fourth medal in archery and 87th overall in what has been a historic campaign.
At the end of Day 13, India were in fourth place with 95 medals.
The team of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Simranjeet Kaur emerged better than the Vietnam trio, winning 6-2 (56-22, 55-56, 57-50, 51-48).
India had qualified for the final after convincing and comfortable wins over Thailand (in the 1/8 Elimination Round), Japan (in the quarter-finals) before taking out the much-fancied South Korea (in the semi-finals).
Later, India won a silver medal in men’s recurve team archery after going down 1-5 to South Korea in the final. Team of Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Tushar Prabhakar were convincingly swept aside by the Koreans.
Wooseok Lee, Jinhyek Oh and Deok Je Kim took the opening and third sets 60-55 and 56-55 while levelling the second 57-57. Each set earns a team two points which ruled out the need for a fourth set.
India had qualified for the final after beating Hong Kong (6-0), Mongolia (5-4) and Bangladesh (5-3)
HS Prannoy wins bronze in men’s singles badminton
HS Prannoy signed off from the Asian Games with a bronze medal, India’s first medal in men’s singles in 41 years, after going down in straight games to reigning All England champion China’s Li Shi Feng.
Prannoy, playing with a back injury, committed too many unforced errors to go down 16-21, 9-21 in a 51-minute contest.
It is India’s first medal in men’s singles badminton at an Asian Games since Syed Modi had won a bronze in 1982. Prannoy was part of India’s silver medal winning men’s team last week.
Prannoy seemingly ran out of gas after a physically and mentally draining quarter-final a day ago. In it, Prannoy squandered two match points while saving two of his own to beat 2021 All England champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia. Prannoy had come through 21-16, 21-23, 22-20 in that herculean 78 minute duel.
India win bronze in sepaktakraw
India won a bronze medal in sepaktakraw in the women’s regu event after beating Thailand 2-0 (21-10, 21-13). India had won a medal, also a bronze, at the 2018 Asian Games with the men’s team triumphing that time.
In the first set, India and Thailand were neck-and-neck at 6-6 in the semi-final before the team of Priya Devi Elangbam, Chaoba Devi Oinam, Maipak Devi Ayekpam conceded nine points in a row and eventually the set.
In contrast, the second set saw Thailand take a 13-3 lead before India reduced the deficit to 13-17. Unfortunately, the Thai team reeled off four straight points to win the match and move into the gold medal match.
“Our players wanted to have a memory of their semifinal match against Thailand. They are the best players in the world and it was a great moment for our team to play against them,” said chief coach Hem Raj.
Sonam, Kiran, Aman seal bronze in wrestling
Sonam Malik staved off a spirited challenge from China’s Jia Long to win a bronze medal in the women’s 62kg wrestling. India picked up further bronze medals from the wrestling mat courtesy Kiran and Aman in women’s freestyle 76kg and men’s freestyle 57kg categories.
Going first in the medal rounds, Kiran and Long were locked at 4-4 with the Chinese wrestler ahead on criteria. With just 25 seconds left, Sonam effected a crucial take-down move to emerge a 7-5 winner.
Kiran beat Ariunjargal Ganbat of Mongolia 6-3 on points and Aman triumphed 11-0 against Minghu Liu of China by technical superiority.
India have now won five medals in wrestling at the Asian Games after Sunil Kumar (Greco Roman) and Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg).
Men’s Bridge Team wins silver medal
India’s men’s bridge team went down 12-17 to Hong Kong in the final to contend themselves with a silver medal. After 96 boards played, Hong Kong collected 229.1% of the points while India earned 152%. China and Japan took the bronze medals.
India men’s cricket team into gold medal match
India thumped Bangladesh by nine wickets to power into the gold medal match as they bid to win the Asian Games title on their first attempt.
India, having skipped the cricket event at 2010 and 2014 Asian Games, is taking part in the multi-sport extravaganza for the first time.
On an overcast day at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field, India won the toss and chose to field on a pitch that has aided spinners.
It proved to be the case again, with Bangladesh stumbling to 96/9. Sai Kishore grabbed 3/12 and Washington Sundar 2/15.
Only three Bangladesh batters reached double figures, led by Jaker Ali’s unbeaten 24.
While Bangladesh struggled, India made it look easy in their run to the small target. They got to the target in 9.2 overs for the loss of one wicket. Tilak Varma was 55 not out and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad unbeaten on 40.
The chase, however, endured a horror start with Yashasvi Jaiswal, centurion in the quarter-final against Nepal, out for a duck in the first over.
But Gaikwad seized back control, plundering 20 runs in the third over including consecutives sixes off fast bowler Ripon Mondol.
Varma got in on the act in the next over, also crashing straight sixes, this time off Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, as they raced to 50/1.
In contrast, Bangladesh had found runs hard to come by. India got the breakthrough in the fifth over with Mahmudul Hasan Joy holing out to Jaiswal at mid-on off Kishore.
Skipper Saif Hassan and Zakir Hasan were both out in the space of three balls.
Emon ground 23 off 32, but he too succumbed to spin, shanking to cover off Varma as Bangladesh crawled to 36-4 in the ninth over.
Gaikwad’s decision to deploy Kishore again paid immediate dividends with Afif Hossain and Shahadat Hossain both out to soft dismissals, before Ali’s late flurry.
India will take on Pakistan or Afghanistan in the gold medal match.
India women’s kabaddi team into final
In women’s kabaddi, two-time former champions India inflicted a rout on Nepal and progressed to a fourth successive final. India beat Nepal 61-17 and would be keen to make amends for last edition’s silver medal.
Pooja Hathwala and Pushpa Rana spearheaded India’s attacking department and ensured a commanding 29-10 lead at half time.
Overall, India inflicted five all-out in the match to book their place in the fourth out of four finals in the women’s kabaddi event at the continental showpiece.
The men’s kabaddi team thrashed arch-rival Pakistan 61-14 in their semi-final. Pakistan were hardly a match for the technically superior India who took a massive 30-5 lead at half time, securing two bonus points along with the 22 and six points they earned through ‘outs’ and ‘all outs’ respectively.
India, consecutive seven-time gold medallists, had suffered a shock loss to Iran in the semi-finals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
India will meet the winners of the second semi-final between Iran and Chinese Taipei in the title round.
Satwik-Chirag into men’s doubles final
Star men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty dished out a badminton master-class to storm into the final and inch closer to India’s first-ever badminton gold at the Asian Games on Friday.
The world No.3 pair, which was part of the silver-medal winning Indian men’s team last week, produced a sensational show to outclass Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, Tokyo bronze medallists and former world champions, 21-17, 21-12 in 46 minutes of dominance.
The Indian pair thus became the first Indian men’s doubles pair to assure of a silver at the Asian Games.
Satwik and Chirag, the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallists, will face Korea’s Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in the final on Saturday.
While the two sent down their booming smashes whenever there was an opportunity, Satwik and Chirag were also good with their angles and placement.
The two pairs fought tooth and nail from the first point to 10-10 before Satwik produced a smash to take a one-point lead at the break.
On resumption, the Indian pair showed better anticipation and quickly extended their lead to 16-10 before grabbing six game points.
A service error from the Indians and then a deceptive stroke from Soh helped Malaysia save three game points before Aaron sent his forehand into the net.
The Indians came out all guns blazing with the pair mixing defence and attack seamlessly to zoom to 11-3 at the interval.
The two showed great coordination, moving smoothly back and forth with Satwik displaying his superb defence and Chirag complementing him.
Satwik and Chirag kept dominating the rallies with their anticipation and interceptions and grabbed 10 match points after winning a net duel, and converted in the third attempt.
HS Prannoy, meanwhile, clinched bronze medal, after losing to China’s Li Shi Feng in the semi-finals. Prannoy lost the game with a score of 16-21, 9-21 against Li.
India men’s hockey team clinch gold, qualify for Olympics
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh led admirably as the Indian men’s hockey team mauled defending champions Japan 5-1 to reclaim the Asian Games gold, their fourth in the continental showpiece, after nine years and qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics here on Friday.
The Indians, who had to be content with a bronze medal in the last edition in Jakarta, thus won their fourth Asian Games gold and first since the 2014 Incheon edition.
India’s other gold medals came in 1966 and 1998, both times in Bangkok.
South Korea won the bronze medal after eking out a close 2-1 win over hosts China.
Harmanpreet (32nd, 59th minutes) scored a brace through penalty corners, Amit Rohidas (36th) also sounded the board from a set-piece, while Manpreet Singh (25th) and Abhishek (48th) found the net from field efforts to register the famous victory for India.
Indian men go down against Hong Kong; settle for silver in Bridge
The Indian men’s team stumbled on the final hurdle against Hong Kong, and settled for a silver medal in the bridge competition at the Asian Games here on Friday.
India, a gold and two bronze-medal winner at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, lost to Hong Kong 152-238.1 in the gold-medal match at Hangzhou.
The Indian team consisting of Sandeep Thakral, Jaggy Shivadasni, Raju Tolani and Ajay Prabhkar Khare could not challenge the Hong Kong outfit at any point during the six sessions, spread over two days.
Indian men were trailing 1-2 after the first two sessions, and they made a woeful start, losing the day’s first session 32-42 to Hong Kong.
Trailing 1-3, India needed to win the second session on the day, but Hong Kong emerged a clear 38-17 winner to all but seal the gold with a 4-1 lead.
(with inputs from PTI, AFP)
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