2022 Asian Games Day 11: India surpasses its best ever medal tally; Neeraj Chopra defends his gold medal in a controversy marred finale

With 12 medals coming today, India now has 81 medals, including 18 gold, 31 silver, and 32 bronze medals—its best tally ever in the history of the Asian Games. 

2022 Asian Games Day 11: India surpasses its best ever medal tally; Neeraj Chopra defends his gold medal in a controversy marred finale

Neeraj Chopra (centre) and Kishore Jena (left) finish a historic 1-2 in men's javelin final at 2022 Asian Games. (via Scroll)

India on Wednesday continued to pile on medals at the ongoing 2022 Asian Games, as it has now surpassed its best-ever medal tally of 70 achieved in the last edition of the Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. With 18 golds so far, the Indian contingent has now won the most number of gold medals in a single edition of the Games. As has been the story for the past few days, athletics contributed the most, with 7 of the 12 medals coming from it. 

The poster boy of India, Neeraj Chopra, made a strong comeback after his first throw, which was well over 87 meters, was not calculated by the officials and he was forced to retake the throw. The reigning Olympic champion came up with his season’s best throw of 88.88m in his fourth attempt to defend his title. 

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He got stiff competition from Kishore Jena, who bettered his personal best mark not once but twice as India claimed a historic 1-2 finish in men’s javelin. The men’s quartet lived up to their billing as they broke the national record with a timing of 3:01.58 minutes to cap off an excellent season with a gold in Hangzhou.

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It was a double delight for Harmilan Bains and Avinash Sable, as both clinched silvers in the women’s 800m and men’s 5000m finals, respectively. While Harman won two silvers, Avinash added to the gold he won in the 3000-meter steeplechase final.

The Bahraini 4×400 women’s relay team finally broke the hegemony of India in this event, as the 5-time defending champions had to settle for silver this time around. Earlier in the morning, Ram Baboo and Manju Rani created history as they became the inaugural bronze medalists of the mixed team 35km race walk final.

The compound archery once again proved why India is the best nation in this event, as the mixed pairing of Ojas Deotale and Jyoti Surekha Vennam defeated Korea 159-158 to stand on top of the podium. Both are in gold medal contention in the individual event too, and they have already made it to the quarterfinals in their respective team events as well.

Sunil Kumar was the lone Indian greco-roman wrestler to clinch a medal today as he defeated the wrestler from Kyrgyzstan 2-1 on points in the bronze medal bout to stand on the podium in the 87kg category. 

Explore: 2022 Asian Games: Neeraj Chopra robbed off a huge throw due to alleged incompetency of Chinese officials

Squash players enter two finals; Sindhu, Prannoy advance to quarters

Lovlina Borgohain, the reigning world champion, failed to become the Asian Games champion as she lost her final by a unanimous 0-5 decision against the Chinese boxer and settled for silver.

P.V. Sindhu (L) and Saurav Ghoshal (R)

With Lovlina’s defeat, the Indian boxing team will return without a gold medal, though with 1 silver and 4 bronze medals (Parveen Hooda too lost her semifinal today to settle for a bronze medal), it was an improved showing from the previous edition in terms of the number of medals won. 

In squash, Saurav Ghoshal’s journey continued for an elusive Asian Games individual gold as he breezed past his Hong Kong, China, opponent in straight sets and progressed to the gold medal match. The mixed pairing of Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal Karthik advanced to the final after a 2-1 victory in the semis. However, another mixed pairing comprising Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh lost a closely contested match and will have to settle for a bronze medal. 

P.V. Sindhu seems to be slowly but gradually returning to her best, as she trounced her Indonesian opponent in straight sets to enter the last-eight stage. Similarly, H.S. Prannoy also made the quarterfinals after a straight-set win.

The men’s pairing of Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy had to sweat it out before advancing to the quarterfinals in three sets against their World No. 11 Indonesian opponents. All other shuttlers, including Kidambi Srikanth, are out of the medal reckoning after losing their respective matches. 

In other results of the day, the men’s hockey team won 5-3 against Korea and is now a step away from clinching the gold as well as the ticket to the Paris Olympics. They will play defending champion Japan in the summit clash.

The men’s bridge team defeated hosts China in the semifinals and will now play Hong Kong, China, in the gold medal match. The chess teams maintained their respective second positions after the 6th round. While the men played out a tough 2-2 draw against China, the women’s team annihilated Mongolia 4-0. This is their second clean victory in two consecutive days, and they are tightening their grips on a medal. 

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