At the Asian Games, India’s teams in the compound archery category became champions in all three events and won a ‘hat-trick’ of gold medals. With gold also coming in shooting, and along with the bronze medals won in wrestling and boxing, India secured 7 medals in a single day on Wednesday. Thanks to the gold haul, it has also moved up in the medal standings.
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Archery
In the compound category, India impressed by winning gold in all three team events — men’s, women’s, and mixed. Notably, it competed as the defending champion and retained the gold medal.
In particular, the pair of Sheetal Devi and Sahil Jadhav, who won gold in the mixed team category, secured a quota place for India in archery at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. With the compound mixed team event being included in the Olympic Games for the first time, India became the first country to secure a place in it.
Earlier, in the women’s team category, the Indian team comprising Sheetal Devi, Preetika Pradeep, and Jyoti Surekha defeated the Chinese team 238-234 to clinch the gold. It is also noteworthy that India equaled the world record score set by South Korea in 2014.
In the mixed team final, the match between the Indian pair of Chikita Taniparthi and Sahil Jadhav and the South Korean pair ended in a 157-157 tie. In the shoot-off held later to decide the winner, the Indian pair won 10-9 to become champions.
In the men’s team category, the team comprising Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav, and Ganesh Maniratnam defeated the Chinese team 238-237 to claim victory. In the semifinals, they had beaten South Korea 236-229.
Shooting
In the final of the trap mixed team event, the Indian team comprising Neeru Dhanda and Kinan Chenai won gold with an Asian record of 34 points.
Qatar won silver (32) and China bronze (23). Earlier, Neeru Dhanda, who had already won a record gold in the women’s trap individual event and a silver in the women’s team event, has secured her third medal at the ongoing Asian Games. She has also become the only Indian to win two gold medals at the ongoing Asian Games.
Boxing
In the women’s 75 kg semifinal, Lovlina Borgohain defeated Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova 3-2. With this, she became the first Indian woman to reach the final in consecutive Asian Games editions. She had won a silver medal last time.
Along with Lovlina, Parveen Hooda and Ankush Panghal will now be in action in the final round.
Bronze - India’s Priya Gangas and Kapil Pokharia lost in the semifinals and bid farewell with bronze medals. This was their debut Asian Games.
In the women’s 60 kg category, Priya lost 1-4 to China’s Yang Chengyu, while in the men’s 90 kg category, Kapil went down by the same score to Uzbekistan’s Turabek Khabibullayev.
Wrestling
Sunil Kumar won the bronze medal in the men’s 87 kg category.
He defeated Tajikistan’s Muhammad Sultanzoda 9-0 in the quarterfinals. However, in the semifinals, he lost 0-11 to Japan’s Daizo Yoshida.
As a result, he advanced to the bronze medal match, where he defeated the Philippines’ Roberts Kelam Johnston 9-0 to win a medal.
First Indian: Sunil Kumar earned the distinction of becoming the first Indian to win two medals in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Asian Games. He had previously won bronze in 2013 as well.
In the women’s 68 kg category, Nisha Dahiya drew 4-4 with North Korea’s Pak Sol Gum in the first round, but Pak won on technical points. Later, as Pak advanced to the final, Nisha got a chance in the repechage round. However, Nisha lost there as well, 4-5, to South Korea’s Park Hyeon-yeong.
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Judo
In the women’s 48 kg category, Ashmita Dey lost in the bronze medal bout.
Commonwealth reigning champion Ashmita, though she defeated Vietnam’s Kac Chi Hao in the first round, lost to Kazakhstan’s Abiba Abuzhakynova in the quarterfinals. However, as Abiba advanced to the final, Ashmita got a chance in the repechage round, where she defeated Hong Kong’s Ka Lee Wong.
Having reached the bronze medal match through that, Ashmita was defeated by Mongolia’s Narantsetseg Ganbaatar.
Squash
The Indian men’s and women’s teams advanced to the semifinals and secured medals.
The reigning champions, the men’s team, defeated Kuwait 2-0 in the quarterfinals. First, Veer Chotrani beat Pathar Almoqrebi 12-10, 8-11, 11-0, 11-5, while Abhay Singh defeated Amar Altamimi 11-3, 11-4, 11-8.
Similarly, the women’s team defeated Singapore 2-0. First, Tanvi Khanna beat Av Yong Wai Linn 11-6, 4-11, 15-13, 11-1, while Anahat Singh defeated Av Yong Wai Yan 11-7, 11-3, 11-4.
Cycling
In the men’s sprint category, Ronaldo Singh and David Beckham, who advanced from the first qualifying round, were eliminated in the next round after finishing second. In the women’s keirin category, Saritha Kumari and Keerthi Chikka Rangasamy were defeated in their very first heats.
Golf
In the women’s individual category, Pranavi Urs is in second place. Deepksha Thakur and Aditi Ashok are in 18th place. In the team category, their pair is in sixth place.
In the men’s individual category, Sabtak Talwar is in 3rd place, while Veer Alawat and Yuvraj Sandhu are in 23rd place. In the team category, the Indian team that includes them is in 5th place.
E-sports
In the MOBA category, India lost all three of its group-stage matches to Hong Kong, South Korea, and Chinese Taipei, and was eliminated after missing out on a semifinal berth.
Sepaktakraw
In the 4-a-side category, the Indian men’s and women’s teams were defeated right at the start of the group stage. The women’s team lost 7-15, 8-15 to Vietnam and 17-16, 10-15, 12-15 to the Philippines. The men’s team went down 9-15, 8-15 to Vietnam.
Tennis
In the singles category, Sumit Nagal defeated Uzbekistan’s Sergei Fomin 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals, while Dakshineswar Suresh lost to Chinese Taipei’s Chun Hsin Tseng 3-6, 4-6.
In the doubles category, the pair of Sriram Balaji/Anirudh Chandrasekar lost 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (4/7), 8-10 to China’s Fumin Xiang/Tianhui Jiang duo.
The Yuki Bhambri/Dakshineswar partnership went down 6-7 (5/7), 3-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Cheng-Jui Ho/Yu Hsiu Su pair.
Canoe
In the canoe-style event, Pratyumna Singh Rathod finished 6th in the men’s single kayak final, while Pallavi Jagatap was disqualified in the women’s canoe final.
Speed Climbing
In the men’s category, Deepu Mallesh climbed the 15-meter wall in 5.09 seconds in the qualifying round to finish as the 11th athlete and secure a place in the quarterfinals. In the women’s category, Joga Poorti, who had advanced to the quarterfinals, failed to move on to the next stage due to a false start.
Hockey
In the women’s semifinals, India defeated South Korea 2-0 to advance to the final. Ishika Chaudhary (44’) and captain Salima Tete (48’) scored for India. In the final, India will face reigning champions China on Friday. If India wins gold, it will be the Indian women’s hockey team’s second gold at the Asian Games. Previously, India had won gold in the 1982 competition held in Delhi.
