New Delhi (TIP)- India’s compound archers carried their gilt-edged form into the team events, sweeping two golds at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre as five medals won across disciplines on Thursday pushed India’s overall tally to 86 — within striking distance of achieving a magical century and fulfilling the contingent’s ambitious target when it set off for the 19th Asian Games.
With nine more confirmed medals in archery (3), kabaddi (2), badminton (2), hockey (1) and bridge (1) yet to be added to the total, and two more all but certain in chess, India will inch closer to the three-figure mark over the next two days, and with several other athletes in contention, is now firmly on track to breach it.
To be sure, India’s performance at Hangzhou is already its best ever at any Asian Games, surpassing the 70 medals achieved at 2018 Jakarta by some distance. And it’s been a long and creditable journey from 2002 Busan, when the overall medal tally stood at a dismal 36.
At Hangzhou, India’s 21 golds so far (previous best 16) and 32 silvers (previous best 23) are already records, and show how the net has been cast wide for Olympic sport.
October 5 got off to a golden start thanks to the women’s compound archery team of Jyothi Surekha, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur — the reigning world champions — who kept their nerve to edge out Chinese Taipei by a solitary point (230-229) while the men (Pravin Deotale, Abhishek Verma and Prathamesh Jawkar) cruised against mighty South Korea, beating them (235-230).
“We are very happy because this is the first time that we have won a gold medal in the Asian Games in the compound women’s category. There was wind which made the final challenging. We had to calm ourselves and focus on our shooting. We train to be our best even in worst conditions, irrespective of what the opponents shoot,” Surekha said.
Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Sandhu then won the mixed doubles squash final against Malaysia to keep the momentum going, but Saurav Ghosal failed in his quest to win gold, losing to Malaysia’s Eain Yow in the men’s singles final. The silver was still his seventh individual medal in Asian Games, making him the highest male medal winner for India. The overall record is held by PT Usha, who has a total of 11 (4 gold, 7 silver). In wrestling, India’s world U-20 champion Antim Panghal, who also won bronze at the World Championships to seal her Paris Games berth, lost to Japanese world champion Akari Fujinami early, but then did well in the repechage to clinch bronze. She beat Mongolia’s Bolortuya Bat-Ochir 3-1 in a tight, defensive bout to seal the medal.
There was joy on badminton courts as HS Prannoy and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the semi-finals. Prannoy beat Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia 21-16, 21-23, 23-21 in a tight match despite struggling with a back injury while Rankireddy and Shetty thrashed Singapore’s Joo Jie Nge and Prajogoto 21-7, 21-9. Source: HT