2022 Asian Games Day 13: India confirmed of breaching the 100-medal mark; men’s Hockey team wins gold as well as Paris Olympics quota

What an Asian Games, being held in Hangzhou, this has been for the Indian contingent! After winning 70 medals in the last edition in 2018, their best-ever performance until the 2022 Asian Games, India is all set to increase its medal tally by a mind-boggling 50% as the Indian athletes have confirmed that they will not return from China without crossing the coveted 100-medal mark. As things stand right now, India have already clinched 95 medals, including 22 gold (also a record), and are already confirmed of 3 in archery, 2 in kabaddi and 1 each in cricket and badminton, which takes the medal tally to 100+ and with some events still to go, India is well paced to go much beyond the 100-mark.

It was yet another memorable outing for the Indian contingent on Friday, the penultimate day for competitions in which the Indians are involved as 9 more medals were added to the kitty. Wrestling contributed the most with 3 more bronze medals coming in the form of Aman Sehrawat (men’s 57kg), Sonam Malik (62kg) and Kiran (76kg). However, the biggest shock in-store today was the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist and the biggest gold medal hope in Hangzhou Bajrang Punia not standing on the podium today. Bajrang first lost his semifinal bout 1-8 against the Iranian wrestler and then was defeated by the Japanese pugilist via technical superiority in the bronze medal match. Moreover, despite winning 5 medals (all bronze), Indians are yet to enter a final in any of the weight categories, a worrisome sign considering wrestling brought 2 gold medals from the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games even though only three medals in total came in that edition.

The most significant result of the day came from the hockey stadium as the men’s team, led by their captain and also their goal-scoring machine Harmanpreet Singh, India ended its 9-year wait for the gold medal as they trounced defending champions Japan 5-1 to finish on top of the podium. Indians were dominant throughout the game, which can be evidenced by the fact that they conceded the first penalty corner of the match only in the fourth quarter. Besides Harmanpreet, who scored 2 goals, Amit Rohidas, Abhishek Singh and Manpreet Singh sounded the board once as with this win, India also secured the Paris Olympics quota.

After the initial disappointment, the recurve archers finally came to the party, as the women’s team first defeated Vietnam 6-2 to clinch a bronze medal and then it was the turn of the men’s team to not only claim a medal but to also have a slice at history. The men’s team became the first ever set of recurve archers to make it to the gold medal match in any category since the inception of recurve archery at the Asian Games. They eventually lost to Korea 1-5 and were forced to settle for silver.

2022 Asian Games: Kabaddi teams, men’s cricket team reach final with convincing wins

It was the first-ever medal for India in women’s Sepaktakraw as the ladies claimed a bronze medal after losing out to Thailand in straight sets in the semifinals of the regu event. The men’s bridge team, who had already confirmed a medal, days back, could not stave off the challenge posed by Hong Kong, China and eventually had to settle for a silver. H.S. Prannnoy, who became the first man in 41 years to claim a medal in the men’s individual category at the Asian Games, could not show a fight in the semifinals as he lost to local favourite LI Shifeng in straight sets 16-21, 9-21 to eventually settle for a bronze medal.

Besides these medal winners, Indian kabaddi teams confirmed that not winning gold medals in the last edition was just an aberration as they look poised to again dominate the mats and finish on top of the podium. The men’s team annihilated Pakistan 61-14 and similarly, the women’s team too had it easy, defeating Nepal 61-17 to book their places in the gold medal match scheduled for tomorrow.

The men’s cricket team has lived up to its tag of favourites as they made light work of Bangladesh in the semifinal, defeating their neighbours by 9 wickets and a whopping more than 10 overs to spare. Sent into bat, Bangladesh hardly got going and could only make 96, with pitch-aiding spinners that were evident as India bowled 16 out of 20 overs of spin. In response, the last match’s centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal departed for a duck but skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Verma ensured no further hiccups as they sailed to the target within 9.2 overs to set up a gold medal match with Afghanistan, who caused an upset by defeating Pakistan by 4 wickets in the other semifinal of the day.

In other results of the day, the duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy created history as they became the first-ever Indian pair to make it to the final at the Asian Games. The World No.3 pairing trounced the Malaysian combine in straight sets to 21-17, 21-12 to set up the gold medal match The men’s and women’s chess teams have maintained their second position after the completion of the 8th and penultimate round and look set to adding 2 more medals to further swell India’s medal tally. In roller skating, one Indian was placed fourth and the other at sixth position after the completion of the short program final of the ladies’ artistic single free skating and will vie for medals tomorrow. Two single players have also made it to the quarters in the individual category of soft tennis and will look to win India’s first-ever medals in this discipline.

In case you missed it:

• “Aur baatien world cup jitne ki kar rahe hai”- Indian fans MOCK Pakistan after their ouster from Asian Games following their defeat to Afghanistan
• India destroys Pakistan in Kabaddi, advances to Asian Games Final with eyes on gold
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