AICHI, Japan (TIP): Members of Indian squad competing in the Aichi Asian Games could not have thought of a better way than paying “golden” tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
It was one of those days that brought glory, cheers and smiles to the Indian camp with its athletes doing well in archery, boxing, wrestling and hockey to take its tally past the 75-mark.
Before the close of the day, the Indian contingent couldn’t have asked for more as its gold tally rapidly swelled to 15. India would be hoping for more on the last two days as Indian men’s hockey and cricket teams are scheduled to play their gold medal games on October 3. Indian men take on Malaysia for the hockey crown while arch rivals and neighbors Pakistan play India in cricket final.
Gandhi and Jayanti turned out to be the best day for Team India as its archers – Recurve archers, boxers -m Parveen, Lovlina and Ankush, besides the wrestler Sujeet turned in gold performances before the Indian women’s hockey team took on Chinese in the final.
Woman boxer Lovlina Borgohain lived to the expectations as she boxed out her Chinese rival, Ziyi Bao 8-0 to submission in the 75 kg final. It was the first gold for India in boxing this time. Parveen followed with a similar smashing performance in the 65 kg category by knocking out Taipei challenger Nien-Chin Chen in a close contest that was decided by a split verdict of 3-2.
To cap the boxing day in gold, Ankush beat Minseong Kim of Korea 4-0 to complete India’s tally in boxing to three gold and three bronze medals. Three Indian boxers – Narender, Priya and Kamal Pokhariya – completed their engagements with bronze medals hanging around their necks.
In wrestling Sujeet was the toast of Indian camp as he wrestled his way to the gold in the 56 kg category. He overpowered Kudev Abdulmazhid (Tajikistan) 10-0.
After winning all three team titles in Compound category, Indian archers had to contend with one gold and two silver medals in all three sections of Recurve Team championships. The women beat Korea 5-3 while the men and mixed teams won silver medals. In the mixed team contest, India lost to China 3-5 and in men they fell to Korea 1-5.
(Prabhjot Singh is a senior Toronto-based, award-winning independentjournalist, who worked with The Tribune, Reuters, and several media groupsin a career spanning nearly five decades. He has written extensively aboutDiaspora, Politics, Business, Aviation, Health, Public and Private Sectors andSports. He can be reached at prabhjot416@gmail.com)
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