2022 Asian Games Day 10: India continues its surge towards touching the 100-medal mark; Parul Chaudhary and Annu Rani clinch gold

With 9 medals today, India's medal tally has reached to 69; 15 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze medals are firmly on fourth spot on the table.

2022 Asian Games Day 10: India continues its surge towards touching the 100-medal mark; Parul Chaudhary and Annu Rani clinch gold

Parul Chaudhary (L) and Annu Rani (R) (via Sportstar/ The Hindu)

It was yet another magnificent day for the Indian contingent at the 2022 Asian Games currently underway in Hangzhou, as 9 more medals, including 2 gold, were won by the athletes to take India’s medal tally to 69, just 31 shy of hitting the century mark. Besides this, Indian archers and squash players ensured several medals whose colour will be determined in the latter stages of the quadrennial extravaganza.

The Indian athletics team continues to have a gala time in Hangzhou as 6 more medals were added to the kitty on the fifth day of the track and field competitions. Leading the charge were two girls from Meerut, Parul Chaudhary and Annu Rani, who claimed the yellow metal in the 5000m and javelin throw final, respectively. Chaudhary, who yesterday itself won a silver medal in the 3000m steeplechase final, went a step further as she timed her acceleration to perfection to finish first with a timing of 15:14.75 minutes.

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The more surprising was Annu Rani’s gold, as the whole season she looked off-color. However, the 2014 Asian Games bronze medalist stepped up when it mattered the most as she came up with a season’s best throw 62.92m in her fourth attempt to upset the Chinese duo who were favorites to take up yet another 1-2 finish in this event.

There were more medalists in athletics as Tejaswin Shankar came up with a fine effort over the course of two days to take silver in the men’s decathlon with a personal best score of 7666 points. Mohammed Afsal ran a timing of 1:48.43 minutes to finish second in the men’s 800m final even as another Indian in the fray, Kishan Kumar was disqualified after the completion of the race. It was bronze for India in women’s 400m hurdles as Vithya Ramaraj finished on the podium despite not breaking the legendary PT Usha’s long standing national record. It was not the best performance from Praveen Chitharavel as his 16.68m was way below his personal best but was enough to earn him a third place even as Abdullah Aboobacker came an agonizing fourth in the men’s triple jump final.

It was a historic moment for India in water sports as the pair of Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh claimed bronze in the men’s C-2 1000m sprint final in canoeing. It was India’s only second medal in canoeing in the history of the games and the first since claiming bronze in the same category 29 years ago in Hiroshima. India’s Preeti Pawar and Narinder Berwal lost in their respective semifinal bout with an identical unanimous verdict to settle with bronze medals in boxing.

Compound archers and squash players impress; 6 medals confirmed

The Tuesday morning began on an auspicious note for India as the men’s cricket team led by a blazing, 49-ball century by Yashasvi Jaiswal defeated Nepal by 23 runs. The Nepalese team finished with 179/9 after a century from Jaiswal and a cameo by Rinku Singh took India to 202/4. Similarly, the women’s hockey team ended their group stage in fine style as they hammered Hong Kong, China 12-0 to enter into the semifinal.

Ojas Deotale (L) and Saurav Ghoshal (R) (via Sporting News/ LatestLY)

However, the performances of the day came from the compound archers even as their compatriots in the recurve category are out of medal contention in the individual events. It will be an all-India final in the men’s individual compound event as reigning world champions Ojas Deotale and Abhishek Verma defeated two South Koreans in their respective semifinals with relative ease. In the women’s category, veteran Jyoti Surekha Vennam defeated defending world champion Aditi Goswami in the semifinal to make it to the gold medal match. Aditi now will have to fight it out for a bronze with the loser of the other semifinal.

Indian squash icon Saurav Ghoshal has confirmed his third consecutive individual medal in the Asian Games as he made the light work of his Japanese opponent by defeating him in straight sets in the quarterfinal. Two mixed doubles teams also entered the last four stages as squash, like archery, confirmed three medals for India today.

In other results of the day, Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain progressed to the final and in the process, also punched her ticket for the 2024 Olympics in the 75kg category of women’s boxing. The chess teams are looking good with the men’s team playing out a 2-2 draw with Iran while the women’s team blanked Mongolia 4-0 and returned to winning ways after a narrow loss to China yesterday. With this result, both teams are currently ranked second and very much in the medal hunt. The men’s bridge team is ahead of China in terms of points after the completion of the first three rounds in the semifinal. Already assured of a medal, the men’s team is looking for the top spot on the podium.

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