A gold medal for the men’s hockey team not only ensured their smooth passage to the 2024 Paris Olympics, but also guaranteed India a century in the medals tally at the ongoing 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou. At the end of Day 13, India’s medal count stood at 95, and is expected to soar with at least five more medals confirmed in archery, cricket, badminton and kabaddi.

On Friday, the men’s hockey team defeated defending champions Japan 5-1 in the final to seal India’s 22nd gold medal, and reclaim the title after nine years. The day however, started with the recurve women’s team clinching bronze in archery. Later, the men’s recurve team beat Mongolia and Bangladesh to reach the final, where defeat to Korea ensured them a silver medal. Shuttler HS Prannoy bagged a bronze after losing to home favourite Li Shifeng in the semifinal, winning India’s first men’s singles individual Asiad medal in badminton since 1982. The men’s doubles pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the final after beating the Malaysian pair of Wooi Yik Soh and Teng Fong Aaron Chia 21-17, 21-12 in the semifinal.

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The men’s Bridge team also added a silver lining to the country’s campaign, before the wrestlers Kiran Bishnoi (women’s 76 kg), Sonam Malik (women’s 62kg) and Aman Sehrawat (men’s 57kg) picked a bronze each. India also bagged a historic bronze in Sepaktakraw after the women’s team lost to Thailand in regu semifinal.

However, the biggest setback of the day was defending champion Bajrang Punia returning empty handed from Hangzhou. Exempted from appearing the trials, the 29-year-old has been out of the mat for more than a year, barring an overseas training session in Kyrgyzstan from August 21 to September 28, he has been spearheading the wrestling protests against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) outgoing chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh since January.

Archery

A day after the compound archery teams grabbed the limelight by clinching the gold medals in both men and women’s categories, the recurve teams on Friday put up a commendable show, despite missing the top prize.

Ankita Bhakat, daughter of a milk vendor, and Bhajan Kaur, who took to archery after trying her hand in shot put along with Simranjeet Kaur, hit the bulls-eye to open India’s campaign on Friday with a bronze medal in women’s recurve event. The medal holds more significance as it is India’s first in women’s recurve event after 13 years.

In the bronze medal contest, the Indian trio handed a 6-2 defeat to Vietnam’s Do Thi Anh Nguyet, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhi and Phuong Thao Hoang after four sets. Under overcast and drizzling conditions, the Indians sealed the first set with a comfortable 56-52 scoreline before being pegged back by Vietnam in the second set. The third and fourth set saw some wayward shooting, mainly by Vietnam as India managed to seal the contest and third place in the event.

Earlier, India had lost 2-6 to archery powerhouse South Korea in the semifinal while Vietnam entered the bronze medal play-off after losing to China by a similar scoreline.

Later in the day, the men’s team, comprising Olympian Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Tushar Shelke went down 1-5 to South Korea in the final to settle for the silver medal.

The Korean team consisting Lee Wooseok, Oh Jinhyek and Kim Je Deok scored a perfect 60 in the first set, putting India straightaway on the backfoot. Atanu Das and Co, however, shared the points in the second set. The third set, too, was a closely contested affair until the final arrow, wherein the Koreans triumphed by scoring a 10.

India’s march to the final came after contrasting wins against Bangladesh 4-2 in the semifinals and 5-4 against Mongolia in the quarter-finals. On Monday, the Indian trio had blanked Hong Kong 6-0 in the round of 16.

Wrestling

Indian grapplers bagged three medals on Friday, taking their overall tally at the continental Games to five. However, the biggest setback for the contingent is Tokyo Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia drawing a blank.

Out of the mat for close to a year, Bajrang, who has been busy spearheading the protest since January, was outclassed 0-10 by young Japan wrestler Kaiki Yamaguchi in the bronze medal match of men’s 65kg freestyle category. The Japanese defeated Bajrang by technical superiority in the second period as the bronze medal bout did not go the distance.

A gold medallist in 2018, and a silver medallist in 2014 editions of the Asian Games, Bajrang opened his campaign with a 10-0 technical superiority win over Tubog Ronil of Philippines and then went on to beat Bahrain’s Alibeg Alibegov in a hard-fought 1/4 final bout 4-0. However, in the semifinals, he lost 1-8 to Iran’s Rahman Amouzadkhalili. The Iranian wrestler got the better of Bajrang, taking an early lead with a four-pointer and eventually winning the bout 8-1.

However, Aman Sehrawat, Kiran Bishnoi and Sonam saved India from the blushes by pocketing three bronze medals in their respective weight categories.

In men’s 57kg category, Aman advanced to the semifinals with an impressive performance. After a tough bout against an Iranian opponent, Aman trailed 1-8 but made a sensational comeback to win by technical superiority, scoring 18 straight points. However, he faced a formidable Japanese opponent in the semifinals and narrowly lost with a score of 12-10.

In the bronze medal play-off, Sehrawat defeated China’s Liu Minghu 11-0 to register a victory by technical superiority. The 20-year-old Indian also won the Asian Wrestling Championships gold in April.

In the women’s categories, Kiran Bishnoi, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, won the freestyle 76kg bronze medal, following a 6-3 win against Mongolia’s Ariunjargal Ganbat. Earlier, Kiran beat Japan’s Nodoka Yamamoto before going down to Zhamila Bakbergenova in the semifinal.

Former U20 World Championships silver medallist Sonam Malik defeated China’s Long Jia in the freestyle 62kg bout to bag the bronze medal. The 21-year-old started off with a win against Nepal’s Sushila Chand and Mongolia’s Noeurn Soeurn before losing to Mun Hyongyong in the semifinal.

Bridge

The Indian men’s Bridge team, comprising Jaggy Shivdasani, Sandeep Thakral, Rajeshwar Tiwari, Sumit Mukherjee, Raju Tolani and Ajay Khare, won the silver medal after going down to Hong Kong in the summit clash.

India lost all six men’s team final sessions against Hong Kong China to settle for the second position. Hong Kong China scored 229.1 points in the final, compared to India’s 152 points.

Japan and China, meanwhile, won the bronze medal at the event.

Introduced at the 2018 Asian Games, the Indian men’s pair had won gold while the men’s and mixed teams picked up bronze. While the Indian men’s bridge team upgraded to silver at Hangzhou, the mixed and women’s teams were ousted in the preliminary rounds.

Sepaktakraw

The Indian women’s regu team clinched a historic bronze, the first ever medal by the women’s team and second overall in the sport in Asian Games history.

Led by Maipak Devi Ayekpam, the Indian women’s regu team suffered a 0-2 loss to Thailand in the semifinal to end up with a bronze.

In the group stage, India had lost to Vietnam but won against China. India’s regu sepaktakraw medal at was assured earlier today after Vietnam beat China, who finished at the bottom of the Group A standings.

Elsewhere, the Indian men’s and women’s kabaddi teams assured medals by reaching the finals. While the women’s team sealed a dominating 61-17 win against Nepal in the semifinal, the men’s kabaddi team thrashed Pakistan 61-14 to enter the final.

In Canoe slalom, Vishal Kewat clocked 134.15 seconds in the men’s semifinal, despite an additional 56 second penalty to progress to the final, while Shikha Chouhan finished sixth in the women’s kayak semifinal to book a spot in the final.

In sport climbing, Indian climbers Bharath Stephen Pereira Kamath and Aman Verma finished ninth and tenth, respectively, in the men’s boulder and lead semifinal, failing to make the final. Both Indian climbers scored 59.9 points in the boulder and lead events.

In Ju-jitsu, India’s Rohini Kalam and Anupama Swain in the women’s -52kg, along with Angitha Shyju and Nikita Choudhary in the women’s -57kg categories were ousted in their opening ju-jitsu bouts. While Rohini lost 0-50 to UAE’s Asma Alhosani, Anupama Swain went down 0-12 against China’s Miao Jie in their round of 16 matches. In the women’s -57kg round of 32 matches, Angitha Shyju lost 0-50 to South Korean Gaeun Geum, while Mongolia’s Udval Tsogkhuu won 50-0 in the round of 16 against Nikita Choudhary.