Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
The fifth day of the Asian Games has been mixed so far as India won two medals but also failed to clinch a medal in two events. But the men’s swimming team made a new national record to reach the final round.
Indian athlete Anush Agarwalla has won the first ever individual Equestrian dressage medal. Agarwalla won a bronze on Thursday while his teammate Hriday Chheda was eliminated early in the final round. Both Chheda and Agarwalla were part of the gold medal winning team in the Equestrian dressage team event.
India’s men shooting team of Arjun Singh Cheema, Sarabjot Singh and Shiva Narwal won a gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol shooting team event. The trio won the contest by outscoring the host China by just one point.
India’s wushu athlete Naorem Roshibina Devi won a silver medal for the country in the 60 kg category. The athlete from Manipur confirmed the silver medal on Wednesday but failed to convert it into a gold as she lost the final match by 0-2 against China’s Wu Xiaowei. The 22-year-old has previously won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games.
The Men’s Cricket team of India have left for Hangzhou to play in the continental tournament for the first time. India has been directly sent into the quarter final along with the teams of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue will play their first match on October 3.
The men’s cricket squad selected for the Asian Games 2023 is led by Ruturaj Gaikwad. The 15-men squad include Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh.
India’s queen of badminton PV Sindhu has led the Indian team to reach the Quarter Final stage. India will face the Thailand team on Friday at 6:30 am IST. Sindhu won the first match by 21-2 and 21-3. The second match was won by Ashmita Chaliha with a score of 21-2, 21-3. India won the round by winning the third match as well, which was played by 18-year-old Anupama Upadhyaya.
Indian swimmers Vishal Grewal, Anand AS, Tanish George Mathew and Srihari Nataraj have created a new national record of 3:21.22 minutes to reach the final of Men’s 4x100 freestyle team event. The previous national record was of 3:23.72 minutes at the 2019 Asian Age Group Championships. Tanish, George and Anand were a part of the 2019 team as well. The team will now swim for a medal on Thursday at 6:36 pm IST.
Indian boxer Jasmine Lamboria has reached the quarter final round after winning against Saudi Arabia’s Hadeel Ghazwan Ashour in the second round. Lamboria had scored a perfect 10 in the first round of her round of 16 bout. She will now take on DPR Korea’s Ungyong Won on October 1 at 12:30 pm IST.
Though the Indian contingent failed to win any medal in the individual rapid chess event. Hopes will once again fall on the team events as Indian chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa is set to play for the country in the event starting on Friday. This will be his first tournament after a historic performance in this year’s FIDE Chess World Cup.
With the amazing performance of Agarwalla, Roshibina Devi and 10m Air Pistol team the Indian medal tally has reached the 25 mark which includes six gold, eight silver and eleven bronze medals.