Asian champion steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary and long jumper Ancy Sojan added the silver lining to India’s campaign on Day 9 of the 19th Asian Games after the India’s roller skaters got the medal tally ticking with two bronze medals, before the star paddlers Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee ended India’s medal drought in women’s doubles campaign with a bronze at Hangzhou on Monday.
India enjoyed a double podium finish in women’s 3000m steeplechase event with Priti Lamba finishing behind Parul for the bronze medal.
Later, the Indian 4x400m mixed relay team, comprising Muhammed Ajmal, Vithya Ramraj, Rajesh Ramesh and Subha Venkatesan, who originally ended up with a bronze medal, was upgraded to a silver after Sri Lanka, who finished second, were disqualified for lane infringement.
The addition of three silver and four medals on Monday helped India retain the fourth spot in medal standings with 13 gold, 24 silver and 23 bronze for an overall haul of 60. Hosts China occupy the top spot with a total of 263 medals, while Japan (121) and South Korea (133) occupy the second and third positions, respectively, based on the higher number of gold medals.
Table Tennis
Popularly called ‘The Mukherjees’, Ayhika and Suthira eventually ended India’s medal drought in women’s doubles, albeit with a bronze medal after narrowly going down to the North Korean pair of Sugyong Pak and Suyong Cha in the semifinal that went down to the wire. They lost the match 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 2-11.
Having comfortably pocketed the first game 11-7, the Indian pair went down 8-11 in the second game. It turned out to be a topsy-turvy affair with the pendulum swinging both sides as the Indians bounced back in style to take the third game 11-7.
The North Korean pair, backed by a sizeable crowd, turned the tables by taking the next two games 11-8 and 11-9 to make it 3-2 in their favour, before the Indians made a superb recovery in the sixth game to take it 11-5, and square off the challenge, and take the contest to the decider. In the final game, the North Korean pair was in an element of their own, and made light work of the Indians, who eventually had to settle for the bronze.
Roller Skating
Indian roller skaters began the day with two bronze medals in 3000m team relay events to match their best ever performance at the Asian Games.
The women’s team of Sanjana Bathula, Karthika Jagadeeswaran, Heeral Sadhu and Aarathy Kasturi Raj opened India’s account on the ninth day of competitions, finishing with a timing of 4:34.861s. The Indian quartet finished behind gold medallists Chinese Taipei (4:19.447) and South Korea (4:21.146).
Iran and Thailand finished fourth and fifth, respectively in a five-team field.
Later, Aryanpal Singh Ghuman, Anandkumar Velkumar, Siddhant Kamble and Vikram Ingale sealed a second bronze with a timing of 4:10.128 in the men’s team relay. Chinese Taipei (4:05.692) and South Korea (4:05.702) took the top-two spots.
Earlier, Vikram Ingale had narrowly missed out on a podium spot in the men’s speed skating 1000m sprint event, finishing fourth. In the women’s speed skating 1000m sprint, Karthika Jagadeeswaran finished fifth. In the women’s speed skating 10000m point-elimination race, Aarthy Kasturi Raj finished fifth. Anandkumar Velkumar and Siddhant Rahul Kamble came in sixth and seventh, respectively in the men’s speed skating 10000m point-elimination race.
Indian roller skaters had won two bronze medals at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games when Anup Kumar Yama bagged one bronze in the men’s singles free skating event and clinched another third spot with compatriot Avani Panchal in the pairs skating competition.
Archery
In archery, India’s Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara registered contrasting victories to march into the individual recurve quarterfinals.
Atanu dominated the individual recurve event against Tajikistan’s Robert Nam en-route to a 7-1 win in the 1/8 Elimination to qualify for the quarters. Meanwhile, Dhiraj Bommadevara pipped Bangladesh’s Mohammad Hakim Ahmed Rubel 6-5 in the 1/8 elimination to enter the last eight stages.
However, Bhajan Kaur was knocked out after losing 3-7 to three-time Olympic Champion An San of South Korea in recurve women’s individual 1/8 elimination.
Earlier, India began on a bright note in recurve mixed team archery, as Ankita Bhakat and Atanu Das punched above their weight to beat Malaysia 6-2 in the 1/8 elimination. Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale guided India to a 159-151 win over the UAE in the compound mixed team event.
Squash
Defending champion Joshana Chinappa made a shock exit from the Hangzhou edition of the Asian Games after losing 1-3 to lower-ranked Mingyeong Heong of South Korea in the women’s singles round of 16 clash. Chinappa, a four-time Asian Games medalist, lost the first game but recovered on time to take the second.
The 37-year-old Indian, however, faltered in the third and fourth games to the 27-year-old Korean to crash out of the tournament.
Tanvi Khanna, however, entered the quarterfinals after beating Arichaya Chujit of Thailand in Round of 16.
Meanwhile, Saurav Ghosal recorded a one-sided contest 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-6) against Kuwait’s Ammar Altamimi to progress to the men’s singles quarterfinals, while Mahesh Mangaonkar lost 0-3 (6-11, 2-11, 6-11) to Japan’s Tsukue Ryunosuke in the Round 16.
Kabaddi
The Indian women’s kabaddi team was held to a surprising 34-34 draw by Chinese Taipei in their Group A campaign opener in Hangzhou. The Indian team, throughout the contest was made to work hard and the Chinese Taipei side managed to secure a bonus point in the final raid, forcing the game to a draw.
Elsewhere, in men’s 1m springboard, London Singh finishes 12th with a score of 207.80 while in sepaktakraw, India beat Singapore 2-0 in men’s quadrant preliminary Group B contest.