India added four silver medals and four bronze medals on a rain-hit Day 10 in Aichi-Nagoya, lifting the tally to 45. Athletics supplied six of the eight, capped by a javelin double podium, while Esha Singh’s shoot-off silver and Pincky Balhara’s kurash bronze came away from the track.
Javelin Double Podium
Yashvir Singh took silver with a personal best of 85.72m in heavy rain, and Rohit Yadav claimed bronze with a best of 84.35m. The pair made a sensational start, with Yashvir opening with 83.56m, and India held the top two spots after the first few rounds.
Rohit briefly went top with his 84.35m before Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage produced a late surge, eventually winning gold with 88.55m.
Gulveer, Murali, Vithya And Parul Add To The Haul
Gulveer Singh won silver in the men’s 1500m with a personal best of 3:36.72,
beaten only in the last 100m by Japan’s Kazuto, who set a Games record of 3:36.35. It is his second silver after the 10,000m, making him the first Indian with two individual medals at these Games.
Murali Sreeshankar took silver in the long jump with 8.07m, his second consecutive Asiad silver, though he was injured on his fourth attempt.
Vithya Ramraj ran a personal-best 54.75 for bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles, behind the UAE’s Mariam, who set a Games record of 54.31, with Anu Raghavan fifth in a PB of 55.88. Vithya’s run broke PT Usha’s 42-year-old record.
Parul Chaudhary added a second bronze of these Games in the women’s 5000m, clocking 15:14.61.
Esha’s Shoot-Off Silver, Pincky’s Bronze
Esha Singh scraped into the 25m pistol final in eighth place on 580, then led early and was assured of a medal before surviving a third shoot-off against North Korea’s Kim Hyon Suk to reach the gold-medal contest.
She then fought back from a hit behind to force a gold-medal shoot-off, tying China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan at 38-all, before losing that shoot-off 2-3 on hits to settle for silver.
In kurash, Pincky Balhara lost her women’s 78kg semifinal 0-5 to South Korea’s Sumin Mo and took bronze.
More Medals In The Pipeline
Kapil Pokhariya, Priya Ghanghas and Lovlina Borgohain all won quarterfinals to assure India of boxing medals.
Men’s hockey thrashed Bangladesh 10-0, with Harmanpreet Singh scoring a hat-trick.
In squash, the women’s team beat China and Japan by identical 2-1 scores, with Joshna Chinappa and Tanvi Khanna prominent, and the men blanked China 3-0 before qualifying past South Korea.
The volleyball team swept Hong Kong 3-0 to stay unbeaten in Pool C, and the men’s cricket team moved into the semifinals after their rain-hit quarterfinal against Afghanistan was abandoned.
Near Misses
Defending champion Avinash Sable ran a season-best 8:21.67 in the men’s 3000m steeplechase but finished fourth. India’s women’s 4x100m relay team also came fourth, missing bronze by 0.05 seconds.
For the first time, India will have no Asian Games medal in the women’s discus, with Seema’s personal best of 59.88m leaving her fourth, short of the bronze mark of 61.43m.
Manu Bhaker missed the 25m pistol final, and Rahi Sarnobat’s costly miss left India fifth in the team event when they could have been second.
Reigning compound champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost in the round of 16, and Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale went out in the women’s doubles opener.
Other Results
The men’s 4x400m relay team topped its heat, and the mixed 4x100m relay side reached the semifinals. Pooja was the only Indian to make the women’s 800m final. Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan was seventh in the 400m hurdles.
Ganesh Thirumuru beat Sahil Jadhav 149-148 in an all-Indian archery round of 16, and Chikitha Taniparthi survived a shoot-off to reach the quarterfinals.
Kishore Kumar Anbarasu beat China’s Ma Wensong to reach the surfing quarterfinals, Sumit Nagal’s tennis match was halted by rain at 3-2 in the first set, and the women’s sepak takraw team finished bottom of Group B.
