Aichi-Nagoya (TIP): Luck has started smiling on the Indian contingent as it has its best day of the games so far with archers completing a hat-trick of gold medal triumphs in team events. Shooters also contributed their mite by adding the third gold to the Indian kitty.
Incidentally, all, but one gold medal for India have come in team events. Only individual gold came from Neeru Dhanda in shooting. Besides her individual gold, she was also a member of the team that finished runners-up in the team event.
As the Games entered the final week, India improved its position and moved to seventh spot in the medals tally with an aggregate of 59 medals, including 10 gold, 21 silver and 28 bronzes. Chinese supremacy remained unassailable. On Wednesday, it had touched 268 medals, including 149 gold, 66 silver and 53 bronzes while the hosts Japan were placed second with 190 medals – 45 gold, 74 silver and 71 bronzes. Korea, Uzbekistan and Thailand with 24, 14 and 12 gold medals each placed third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. Bahrain with 11 golds was placed a notch above India.
Earlier, India had completed a golden “double” in Kabaddi, besides finishing at the top of the podium in women’s cricket. Shooters also had a team gold in 10 m Air Rifle Mixed team (Kamaljeet and Inder Singh Suruchi). In the track and field, Indian women’s quartet of Kiran, Prachi, Vithiya Ramraj and Poovamma Machettira, won the gold in 4×400 m relay.
Indian Trap shooters put aside the challenge of Qatar and China to win gold with an aggregate of 34. Qatar finished second two points behind while China, though placed third, finished with a total of 23. At the end of the day, the shooters’ contribution stood at three gold, eight silver and four bronze medals.
Though India wrapped up its athletics campaign with a gold in 4×400 m relay for women, its tally did not boast of any other top of the podium finish. Of 24 medals athletes contributed to the nation’s medal count, there were nine silver and 14 bronze medals.
The brightest spot of the day was archery in which India reiterated its supremacy in Compound Team events – women, men and mixed. In the women’s section, Indian archers edged out Korea 234-233 in the semis before taking on China in the gold medal match. The final, however, saw the Indian dominance as they had two rounds of maximum 60 arrows on target and the remaining two returning a score of 59 each. Korean women took the bronze defeating Taipei in a nail biting 229-228 finish.
In the mixed teams’ event, Thailand put up a good fight before bowing out at 155-156.The final of the event had the spectators on the edge of their seats as the teams ran neck and neck and ended in a tie at 157 points each. India, however, got the gold for it had two rounds of maximum 40 shoots each against one by Korea. For the bronze medal, China beat Thailand 158-154.
Indian boxers are also hopeful of wresting a good crop of medals in the finals tomorrow. They already have won three bronze medals while Lovlina Borghan has qualified for the gold medal match in the 75 kg category. Priya in the 60 kg category lost her semifinal bout to Chengya Yang of China 1-4 to end with a bronze along with Narender and Kapil Bokhariya.
In squash, Indians teams, both men and women, made the last four round with identical 2-0 wins over their opponents – Singapore and Kuwait.
Indian tennis players had mixed luck as Sumit Nagal moved up with a straight set 6-3, 6-2 win over Sergey Fomin of Uzbekistan in the third round. His teammate, Suresh Dakshinewsar, however, went down fighting to Chun-Hsien Tseng of Taipei 3-6, 4-6.
In the men’s doubles Anirudh Chandrasekhar and Balaji Narayanaswamy lost to the Chinese pair of Fumin Jiang and Tianhvi Zhang at 7-6, 6-7, 8-10 in a game of fluctuating fortunes.
In women’s hockey, China and Japan, after playing a goalless draw, were locked in a penalty shootout. China won the penalty shootout 4-2 to book a place in the gold medal match to be played on Friday.
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