2022 Asian Games Day 6: Shooters again steal the spotlight even as men’s tennis doubles team settles for silver; India open their account in athletics

It was by far the most eventful day for India at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, as the Indian athletes pocketed as many as 8 medals today, with shooters again dominating the proceedings. India also confirmed itself at least a bronze medal when the men’s badminton team stormed into the semifinals for their first Asiad medal in 37 years years. With today’s stupendous performance, India’s medal tally now stands at 33 including 8 gold medals and maintains its stranglehold at the fourth position on the medals table.

Shooting has now given India more than 50% of its total medals (18), with 5 more coming today. It all began when the women’s 10m air pistol team secured the second position with a total score of 1731. However, the performance of the day came when the men’s 50m rifle 3 position team smashed the word record by scoring 1769 en route to securing the yellow metal. If that was not enough, Indian women secured a historic 1-2 finish in the 10m pistol individual final with Palak securing the gold with a Games record of 242.1 and Esha Singh finishing runner-up in what was her fourth medal in the Games. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar then put the icing on the cake with a silver in the 3-position event to equal Esha with 4 medals in Hangzhou.

It was expected that Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan would be able to defend the gold in the men’s double event in tennis that India won in 2018. But that was not to be as they ran into an in-form Chinese Taipei team and eventually had to settle for silver after losing in straight sets 4-6, 4-6. Nevertheless, Rohan Bopanna is aiming for another gold in Asian Games as he has progressed along with Rutuja Bhosale to the gold medal match in the mixed doubles.

It was a similar story in another racquet sport as the men’s team made it to the final and will face arch-rivals Pakistan after blanking Malaysia 2-0. However, the women’s team failed to progress to the gold medal match after losing out to Hong Kong, China 1-2 and settled for a bronze medal. India also opened its medal tally in athletics, its strongest suit in the Asian Games, with Kiran Baliyan securing the third position with a good effort of 17.36m in the women’s shot put final.

2022 Asian Games: India confirm its first medal in boxing, swimmers draw a blank

In other events of athletics of the day, Vikash Singh and Priyanka Goswami finished fifth in men’s and women’s 20km racewalk final, respectively. India also made it to the final of the 400m race in both categories. It was a disappointing performance in the women’s hammer throw final as Tanya Chaudhary could only muster up a throw of 60.50m to finish seventh.

It was a mixed day again for India in boxing as Nikhat Zareen confirmed the first medal for her nation in this edition of the Games with a dominating display of boxing that forced the referee to stop the bout just 2 minutes into the first round. In the process, Zareen also secured a quota for the Paris Olympics to be held next year. Parveen Hooda marched into the quarters after a unanimous 5-0 victory over a Chinese boxer in the women’s 57kg category, but it was curtains for Lakshay Chahar as he lost 1-4 in the pre-quarters to bow out of the competition.

It was yet another story of India breaking numerous national records in swimming but their performance was just not enough to fetch them a medal. With the likes of Srihari Natraj, Virdhawal Khade and Sajan Prakash in the team, it was expected that India would bring an end to the medal drought in swimming that dates back to 2010, but it was not meant to be. Similarly, cycling showed promise but wasn’t able to match their Chinese and Japanese counterparts and will return empty-handed.

In other results of the day, Manika Batra became the first Indian singles table tennis player to make it to the quarterfinals of the Asian Games. The men’s and women’s chess teams began on a positive note after a disappointing show in the individual event with an identical 3.5-0.5 victory in the first round. The bridge team too had a good outing and remained in the fray for medals, especially the men’s team. Aditi Ashok continues to be tied for 2nd after another superb showing in golf, with the women’s team also in the medal fray occupying the third position. Indian women’s basketball team has put its one step into the quarterfinals after pipping Mongolia 68-62, while the men’s 3×3 team suffered their first defeat at the hands of the hosts China and finish second in their pool and will now fight it out in a qualification match to determine their place in the last-eight stage of the competition.

In case you missed it:

• Anush Agarwalla eyes Paris Olympics after scripting history at Asian Games
• Ramkumar Ramanathan ‘annoyed’ by crowd making ‘too much’ noise between serves after settling for silver with Saketh Myneni at Asian Games

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