Asian Games Day 5 Highlights: India lose badminton semis to China, get bronze

Badminton Men's team SF

MD1

India 1-1 China

Satwik-Chirag beat Liang-Wang 21-11, 22-20

Shivani Naik: Satwik and Chirag have used the bodyline attack very effectively. They have also used the steep attack to keep Wang Chang away from the net pinning them back. The Chinese ofcourse were a rattled defense ending up on same side going for same shuttle. But the Indians sent cats amongst pigeons and bissected the Chinese pretty often. Like Chirag says, "Huuuudd", a common Mumbai expression to shoo away pigeons. Don't know what the Chirag context is. It's just an exhale perhaps.

China covered a 4 point ground with nervy Indian mistakes and made it 20-19 and make it 20-20. But Chirag bissects deep, then swivel serves well getting an error out of Wang. Chirag reaction showed what this meant after World Championship loss to these two Chinese.

Satwik-Chirag and Indian doubles continues to shine.

A day of mixed results, and while the men's badminton charge continues, a couple of medal events are left in the day for India.

Nitin Sharma: After the end of the second round, Anantjeet Singh Naruka is placed fourth with 21 points. Kazakh Alexandr Mukhamediyev finishes sixth while Nasser Saleh Al Attiya of Qatar finished fifth. Qatar’s Al Athba is at the top with a score of 24 while Chinese Jianlin You is placed second with 23 with Meng Yuan lee of Chinese Taipei too with 23 points. With the next four shots deciding the fourth place, Naruka needs to hot all four and hope the Chinese Taipei or Chinese shooter miss their shots.

Bhuvan Gupta: Squash events are underway. All three Indians in singles action today - men's second seed Abhay Singh, men's fourth seed Veer Chotrani and women's seventh seed Tanvi Khanna - cleared their opening hurdles in straight games to enter the round of 16.

India's brightest star and women's third seed Anahat Singh begins her campaign in the round of 16 tomorrow.

The Indian women's team have extended their lead over Thailand to 19-0 in the final quarter.

Badminton Men's team SF

MD1

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Chirag Shetty vs Liang Weikeng - Wang Chang

India 11-8 China.

Shivani Naik: Chirag Shetty is on a roll from front court since he was asked to take on more responsibility. It's just made him better and sharper.

Revenge, and revenge of revenge and revenge of revenge avenging revenge apart --- this faceoff between the Chinese World champions and the classy Indians is top-grade men's doubles badminton. It's 4 very very talented and skilled players.

Satwik's smash, Liang Weikeng's serve and Chirag and Wang on front court aggression and control are generationally top notch.

The Chinese have beaten Seo-Kim though. But Chirag is just flying here.

Nitin Sharma: After the first eight shots, Anantjeet Singh Naruka is placed seventh with a score of six. The Indian hit all four targets in the second sequence of four. Two shooters will be eliminated after the end of the first round with four shots remaining for each shooter. Tammar Alwatt of Brunei is placed eighth with a score of six. Naruka needs to climb to the top six or he will be eliminated from the final after the first round.

Alexandr Mukhamediyev of Kazakhstan and Mohammad Alwaad of Kuwait are placed fifth and sixth with scores of seven each.

Nitin Sharma: After the first four shots in the men’s skeet final first round, Indian Anantjeet Singh Naruka is placed seventh with two hits. Meng Yuan Lee of Chinese Taipei is at the top with four hits.

Badminton Men's team SF

MS1

Lakshya Sen vs Shi Yuqi 16 21, 8-10

Shivani Naik: That was a scary landing - from a hop smash for Lakshya. You could see the left ankle land on the side. Court needed mopping if it was slippery. He did recover to take that point and next one after a full-stretch dive to left at net and then a brill down the line round the head smash on the opposite flank.

Trails 9-11 now.

At the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium, the Indian women are continuing their dominant run in hockey. Expectedly, after blasting 36 goals in two outings against Indonesia and Uzbekistan, India have waltzed to a 8-0 lead over Thailand by half-time in their third group match. Six of the goals came within 11 minutes.

Badminton Men's team SF

MS1

Lakshya Sen vs Shi Yuqi

Shi Yuqi leads 11-9, and 13-12

Shivani Naik: Lakshya Sen takes 8-4 lead, and then there's two errors -- not from poor shot selection, but execution. The deep high lift is important to push Shi Yuqi back and Sen earned that lead getting the lengths right on those said lifts. But he sends one a little too far from baseline. Error 1.

Error 2. The angled smash to the line after getting Shi Yuqi pinned to opposite flank. It got Sen number of points, but he overhit one to send it wide. Allowed Shi Yuqi back at 8-8.

The Chinese is a momentum beast and he took 7 of the next 8 points. Yuqi's Reverse slice = bonus & beautiful

A powerhouse effort from Mirabai as she improves by 4kgs, taking her overalls to 198kg with a sensational lift of 111kg.

Nitin Sharma: After the first eight shots in the second round, Raiza Dhillon is placed fourth with a score of 17. Chinese Jiang Yiting leads the final with a score of 19 while Isarapa Imprasertsuk of Thailand is placed second with a score of 19 followed by Assem Orynbay of Kazakhstan placed at third with a score of 18. Zoya Piskun of Kazakhstan is placed fifth with a score of 16 while Korean Kookhee Jang is placed sixth with a score of 15. Last four shots remain in the second round before two shooters are eliminated.

Nitin Sharma: Parinaaz Dhaliwal finished eighth with a score of eight after 12 shots and is out of the final. Chinese Che Yufei too bows out of the final at the seventh spot with a score of nine. Raiza Dhillon has climbed to the third third spot with a score of ten but is placed sixth as her bib number is lower. Another two shooters will be eliminated after this round of 12 shots.

Nitin Sharma: Indians Raiza Dhillon and Parinaaz Dhaliwal are placed seventh and eighth after the first four shots in the women’s skeet final. With having lower bib numbers of seven and eight respectively, the Indians need to shoot well in order to make to the medals.

Nitin Sharma: CWG champion Ankush Panghal begins his men’s 80kg campaign with a 5-0 win against Vogel Hamsa of Bahrain in the Round of 32.

That's three superb snatches for Mirabai Chanu as she finishes with a best attempt of 87kg in her final attempt, setting up for a stronger showing in the Clean & Jerk.

And the reigning world champion Ri Song-gum raises the bar with an opening snatch at 90 kg. She is also the defending Asian Games champion in the category and shows why with an effortless start.

Manush Shah and Diya Chitale have beaten Moosa Ahmed and Aishath Nazim of Maldives 3 to 0 in the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles, Round 3.

Pritish Raj: Jay Meena creates history by winning India's first ever medal in Soft Tennis at the Asian Games.

He won the bronze medal after losing to Takuya Kurosaka 2-4 in the semifinal.

Nitin Sharma: Hangzhou Asian Games silver medallist Anantjeet Singh Naruka will also be competing in the men's skeet final. Naruka finished at the sixth spot with a score of 116 to enter the final.

Mihir Vasavda, our man on the ground, pings: Big indian presence at the venue today. The hall is full, as it was in the morning session as well.

India beat Iran 37-23 in the Kabaddi Women's Team, Group A. Both teams are now locked on four points in the group and have ensured their semi-final spots. The men's team will be in action later this afternoon against Bangladesh.

Pritish Raj: After three medals at the Asian Games 2023, the women's Air Pistol event has turned out to be disappointing for the Indian shooters.

Zero medals from the event as the favourites Esha Singh and Suruchi flopped, while Manu made it to the final; she had way too many chances before her luck ran out.

Nitin Sharma: Manu shoots a 10.8 to leap to the tied third spot after the first shot in the fourth elimination series. The difference between Manu Bhaker and fifth placed Chinese is 0.1. So it's a tense last shot in this series.

Nitin Sharma: Bhaker is tied with Vietnam's Thuy Trang and needs a better score to survive. Bhaker and Trang shoots 10.6 and Bhaker survives in the final.

At the end of the second elimination series, Manu Bhaker is placed fifth with a score of 140.4. Kazakhstan’s Valeriya Popelova finished at the seventh spot.

Manu Bhaker shoots a 10.0 while Vietnam’s Thuy Trang shoots a 10.3 and Bhaker is now placed sixth with the Vietnamese now at the fifth spot. A 0.1 difference between the two and Bhaker again needs to shoot better to survive in the final.

Nitin Sharma: Manu placed fifth after the second series. 9.9 and 9.8 were the poor scores she had, and we enter the elimination now.

After the end of the second series, Manu Bhaker is placed tied-fifth with a score of 100.3. Bhaker shot a second series of 49.5m the second lowest out of the eight shooters and has now slipped to the fifth spot from the third spot in the first series.

Elimination series start now with two shots each before a shooter is eliminated after every series

Pritish Raj: Poor shooting from Manu She hits 9.9 and 9.8 in the seventh and eighth shot and falls down to sixth.

It's time for the finals, folks! Manu Bhaker lines up in a bid for the gold medal. The sighting time is nearly done and we have our eight finalists all set for the action.

Shivani Naik writes: The kerfuffle in rowing over swapping of crews was brought on by the rowing programme reduced from 4 days to 2, and the foreign expert recommending switches because some scullers double up in two events (like 4s and 8s), and 'load management ' is important given, multiple races crunched into a short duration. Balraj Panwar has always been a fine singles sculler while Satnam-Salman capable of handling the rigour if the double sculls more than the quadruples over the 2 km course.

Conditions like water density, the windy air and their own conditioning was considered and the rowers prevailed upon as India chases gold, the Rowing federation secretary told Revzsportz. The crews, obviously accustomed to the tuning in practice were explained why the switches were necessary by the Australian foreign expert Antony Patterson.

The schedule was scrunched into half due to typhoon conditions.

It remains to be seen if the rejigs can deliver India a gold, that was missed last time. The two finals are encouraging.

SOFT TENNIS

A sensational comeback from Jay Meena to deny Sherwin Nuguit the semi-final spot. Locked 3-3 before the final game, Meena was trailing 3-5 in the final game before clawing back to win the next four points and eventually taking the quarter-final 4-3. That assures India their first-ever medal in Soft Tennis at the Asian Games. The losing semi-finalists clinch bronze while the winners proceed to the gold medal match.

Final scoreline: 0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 4-2, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5

Shivani Naik writes:

Not unlike India where badminton champions have acutely felt second best to cricket, but also witnessed growing fanbases when performances fetched up, Japan too is beginning to stir. Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara and earlier Kento Momota may genuinely have more fans / acknowledgers in India than in Japan, because badminton comes well after football, baseball, even basketball and wrestling in terms of recognition and recall. But when TBS - a private TV station that aired the popular Takeshi Castle, decided to show the India vs Japan women's team quarters tie, Akane-chan / Akane-San / a.k.a Yamaguchi got newly 'discovered' by the Japanese.

Now, this 'discover' is like Columbus 'discovering' America. It was always there, but not prominently considered. The 'David vs Goliath' (Sindhu) match became a major TV event viewed across the country, something like a Natwest moment for Japanese badminton. Now the two have played a million times (OK, 31) but badminton isn't exactly a mainstream blockbuster sport for the average Japanese. But many tuned in to watch what the fuss was about.

So, there was Akane-chan battling with a strong, tall, powerful and ever-sharp Sindhu - who except for the last set fadeout, looked sharp and pounded down hee smashes. She is dubbed 'scary' for the blazing power, elite attack over a decade, and Japan freshly discovered how a gritty Yamaguchi with her never-say-die game has been taking on the World, not just Sindhu, from her 5-ft-1 vantage and a big heart.

The opening match was widely followed, analysed for how Akane-chan first copped the power-barrage but kept chipping at Sindhu's stamina and wore her out by the third. The 'less-educared in sport' were reminded of how she was a three-time world champion with great many wins, in a manga-like discourse that Japanese social media tends to become like.

The video of teammate Riko Gunji picking up an accreditation and putting it around the usually absent-minded Akane-Chan's neck went viral, and the day was spent discussing how a great victory was secured over the "great and still-scary at 31" Sindhu from Yindu (India) with her 5-ft-11 imposing presence as badminton came into rare focus for Japan. Their eventual 3-1 win, with only Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand pulling one back, became one of the most viewed sport of Asian Games for the day, though the social media comet trail went on for long afterwards.

Yamaguchi would lose the semis in three sets to An Se-young on Wednesday, and a new antagonist was 'discovered' for Akane-chan. In Anime-town, the usually-shy, but smiling-much-more Akane-Chan, who had lost the Tokyo Olympics and Japan Open recently to Sindhu, grew her fanbase by leaps and bounds..

Jay Meena wins the fifth game, 5-3. He's charting a superb comeback here and stands one game away from securing a semi-finals berth.

India's Jay Meena is up against Sherwin Nuguit of Philippines in the Men's Singles quarter-finals. Meena is trailing 1-2 after three games. The first to snatch four games will win the best-of-seven contest. Each game constitutes a scoring system of four points.

India finish third in Rowing Women's Four, Heats with 6:45.75. They will now take part in the Final A

Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade drew with Mohamed Ismail and Fathimath Ali of Maldives 2 to 2 in the Mixed Doubles second round. Meanwhile, Manush Shah and Diya Chitale stormed past Sri Lanka's Chanul Kulappuwawadu and Bimandee Swarna 3-0. Harmeet and Yashaswini will be back in action at 10:15 am, taking on Kwan To Yiu and Wing Lam Ng of Hong Kong, China.

Soniya Devi Phairembam and Parvathy Geetha end sixth in the Women's Kayak Double 500m, Heats with 2:02.538. They have qualified for the next round nevertheless.

Tanishq Vaddi: Comebacks galore for India at the shooting arena as Suruchi Singh gives a solid performance in her third series. She has managed to stack up 97 points. Esha too did better than she did in her previous round, racking up 95 points, but still has a long way to go.

India's Benedicton Beniston fails to qualify for the Men's 100m Butterfly final after finishing fourth in Heat 2 and over 13th. Sajan Prakash did not start the race.

Megha Pradeep finishes fifth in the Women's Canoe Single 200m, Heats with a timing of 49.675 and qualifies for the Semi-Final.

Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade have dropped the first game. Maldives' Mohamed Ismail and Fathimath Ali snatch the opening game 9-11.

Defeats for both Indians in the Women's Foil event

Tanishq Vaddi updates

Well, it is a resounding comeback from Manu in the second round of the series of 5 shots; she loses a solitary point, clearing 49/50.

India's Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade are playing Mohamed Ismail and Fathimath Ali of Maldives in the TT Mixed Doubles, Round 2. Manush Shah and Diya Chitale will also be in action soon.

India have trumped Philippines 2-0 in Match 1 of the Team Regu preliminary group B clash. That's some respite after dropping points against Japan and Malaysia over the last few days. Match 2 will be underway now.

Promising signs to start the day for India in Rowing.

If you're wondering what's a tonic you'd need to pick yourselves up on a Wednesday morning, the Asian Games has a little surprise in store for you with Sepaktakraw.

India are currently playing the Philippines in Sepaktakraw Men's Team Regu, Preliminary Group B. India had lost their opening game in the group against Japan a few days ago by a 2-1 margin, and endured a 0-3 defeat against Malaysia yesterday.

In Set 1, India are currently leading the Philippines 7-5. But if you're still wondering how the sport looks like, here's a quick video to get you on board: