Continuing their medal-winning spree at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, the shooters got India’s Day 5 campaign to a bright start by clinching gold in the men’s 10m Air Pistol team event, after Naorem Roshibina Devi added a silver in wushu women’s 60kg to take India’s medal count to 24.
The shooting team consisting Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema, Shiva Narwal staged an incredible comeback to bag top spot. The Indians shot a combined score of 1734 in the 10m air pistol team final to win the first Indian gold medal of the day.
China bagged the silver medal while Vietnam settled for bronze to complete the podium.
After their team gold, Sarabjot and Arjun, however failed to add to their medal tally in the men’s 10m air pistol individual final. While Sarabjot finished fourth with a score of 199.0, Arjun scored 113.3 to rank eighth.
Vietnam’s Pham Quang Huy won gold, Wonho Lee of the Republic of Korea claimed silver and Uzbekistan’s Vladimir Svechnikov settled for bronze in the men’s 10m air pistol event.
Meanwhile, in wushu, Naorem Roshibina Devi bettered her 2018 Jakarta Games’ bronze to a silver in the Hangzhou edition. Roshibina crashed to a 0-2 defeat in the women’s 60kg gold medal bout, losing to China’s Wu Xiaowei.
The 22-year-old Indian athlete, however, bagged the silver medal, equalling Sandhyarani Devi’s feat from the 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou. Naorem Roshibina Devi had defeated Kazakhstan’s Aiman Karshyga and Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy in the previous rounds at Hangzhou.
Swimming
Indian swimmers Tanish George Mathew, Vishal Grewal, Anand AS and Srihari Nataraj clocked 3:21.22, to set a national record time, in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay heats and advanced to the final. The team will swim in the relay final later in the day.
Badminton
Elsewhere, the women’s badminton team reached the quarterfinals after beating Mongolia 3-0. India will face Thailand in the last eight stages on Friday.
Two-time Olympic medallist shuttler World No 15 PV Sindhu led India’s charge beating 775th-ranked Myagmartseren Ganbaatar 21-2, 21-3 in the opening match of the tie.
Ashmita Chaliha, a South Asian Games women’s singles champion, also won 21-2, 21-3 against Kherlen Darkhanbaatar to give India a 2-0 lead. In the third match, the 18-year-old Anupama Upadhyaya clinched a 21-0, 21-2 victory against Khulangoo Baatar to make it 3-0 for India.
Towards the evening we’ll witness some high-voltage men’s hockey action between India and Japan and before that Sunil Chhetri and his boys face a mighty challenge against Saudi Arabia in the round of 32 clash.
After claiming a historic gold in equestrian team event, the focus now shifts to Dressage individual freestyle round, where Hriday Chheda and Anush Agarwalla are in contention for medals.