Mihir Vasavda at Asian Games: Ancy Sojan evokes Dhoni-isms after winning silver, pipping favorite Shaili
After the heavier stuff came the fun bit.
Ancy Sojan tapped her feet and caressed her braids, joked about the days she was ‘fatty’ and described the grind to ‘look like an athlete’ again. She evoked Dhoni-isms, paraphrasing the former cricket captain’s ‘control the controllables’ mantra in which she sought solace during her lowest phases.
And by the end of it all, all she wanted was to slurp an ice cream and bust some moves to Vijay’s upbeat and energetic number Na Ready. Loosely translated, the song’s essence is, ‘I am ready, are you ready for me?’ (Read more)
The track & field contingent has raked in the medals already and on Wednesday and there are more at stake. Wrestling action begins as well, with the men’s Greco Roman categories.
Click here to check the main Indian events to track on Day 11 of the Asian Games (Wednesday).
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South Korea's Jang Woojin said he was afraid when playing China's Fan Zhendong in the men's singles TT semifinal. "To play him in China is tougher. And in an atmosphere like this… I was afraid.”
Read Mihir Vasavda's piece from Hangzhou
With two medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games — a 3,000metre steeplechase silver and a 5,000metre gold — India’s Parul Chaudhary has established herself as one of the better distance runners in Asia. In a stunning finish, she beat Japan’s Hironaka Ririka in the last 50 metres of the 5,000 metres after looking like she had settled for silver going into the final stretch.
Ririka was looking good for gold but had left enough space on the inner lane for Parul to steam through. Parul had finished 11th in the final of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest and seems to have taken that confidence into the Asian Games.
Nihal Koshie traces how her journey started.
A confirmation that India topped their pool and will be taking on hosts China in the semifinal. The other semifinal is between Korea and Japan.
One of seven nations to have competed at every edition of the Asian Games, India enjoyed its most successful Asian Games campaign in 2018 in Jakarta where its tally of 70 medals surpassed its previous best of 65 in 2010. The 16 gold medals India claimed in Indonesia finally exceeded their previous best of 15 set at the inaugural Asian Games in 1951.
On Wednesday, the Indian contingent will have the chance to rewrite history. They're currently at 15 golds and 68 overall medals.
With Annu Rani's gold in women's javelin, and Parul Chaudhary's title in the 5000m event, India now have 15 golds at Hangzhou 2023. That's just one medal away from equalling their haul at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018.
That's India's record for most golds won at an Asian Games.
Narender upped the intensity in that round but didn't get the knockout that he needed to win this fight in the third round. He exits the Asian Games after a semi-final loss to Kunkabayev Kamshybek but fails to take the Paris Olympics quota on offer.
GOLD MEDAL ALERT! It's a foul off her last attempt. But she ain't gonna care! She is off celebrating, sharing plenty of hugs with her competitors. Annu Rani clinches gold with 62.92m, a season best mark.
Annu Rani is confirmed to win the gold before her last attempt.
The second round goes to Kamshybek who is now up 20-18 by all five judges. Narender will need to knock the Kazakh boxer out in the third round to get a quota for the Paris Olympics. It's now or never.
Focus shifts to Paris Olympics, where I will return to high jump. Will have to get leaner and in high jump shape.
Narender lands two left jabs but immediately gets tagged in return. Narender either needs a knockout or needs to start showing the judges that he has the output to win this second round. As of now, none of those two positive paths for the Indian seem to be materialising.
Five attempts done, no improvement for Annu but she stays top of the standings. One more throw to come for each of the athletes. Another gold is close for India.
Wry smile from Narender. He needs to keep his spirits up because he's down a round according to all five judges. Needs the second to go in his favour
Narender lands a couple of hard shots to the temple of the Kazakhstan boxer. Super heavyweight category so knockouts really, really in play here. And both boxers know it judging by how tentative they are. Some lovely right crosses there by the Indian to start this off. But the southpaw boxer from Kazakhstan has had more output and that might matter more to the judges.
Annu Rani lost her lead briefly to Sri Lanka's Nadeesha. But with her 4th attempt, the Indian goes big again for another Season Best of 62.92! She's brought her A-game today, it would seem. (It is worth noting here that Japan's superstar javeliin thrower Kitaguchi is not part of this event)
When Tejaswin Shankar moved to Kansas City in the United States as a student-athlete to pursue a degree in business management, he was blown away by the world-class facilities on offer. Apart from the best coaches on the global athletics circuit, Kansas State University provided top-class training and recovery facilities.
For Tejaswin, who had spent most of his athletics career till that time on the worn-out tracks of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, a travelling physio was unheard of. (Read more from Andrew Asman)
Silver for Tejaswin Shankar with 7666 points a new national record as well.
The final event of decathlon- 1500m- about to begin. Tejaswin Shankar is currently in the second spot. A gold looks out of sight but anything can happen in sports.
Alright then, it's finally time for event No 10. A lot of these athletes will be hurting, and out they come to test their body's limits for one last time in Hangzhou. Tejaswin Shankar starts off in 2nd place overall.
Praveen Chitravel bags a bronze with 16.68m in men's triple jump
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Abdulla Aboobacker , with a 16.62m, misses out.
With a best jump of 16.68m, Praveen Chitravel looks on course for a bronze medal
Annu Rani is top of the standings here as of now. She starts with a 56.99m, and then goes big with 61.28m for a new season best.
Men’s 800m final: SILVER MEDAL ALERT! Mohammed Afsal finishes 2nd in the 800m final. Somewhat of the reverse of what Parul did as he lost his lead, and nearly lost his 2nd place too. But he holds on after being overtaken by Essa Ali of Saudi Arabia.
Rubina Yadav, Pooja finish 9th and 6th respectively with clearances of 1.75m and 1.80m
Parul: "Hamari UP Police he aisi hai ki gold medal lekar aaenge toh DSP bana denge. That's what was on my mind - I wanted to be a DSP."
Coach Scott Simmons must be proud of his trainees. A gold by Sable in steeplechase. A silver and gold in steeplechase and 5000m for Parul. Sable's 5000m still left.
Parul has had a consistent two years of progression, both in the steeplechase and the flat 3000m/5000m and even cross country. With progressive training at altitude in Colorado, her aerobic strength has improved greatly giving her the strength we saw in the Budapest qualifying round. She has nothing to lose with the slowest qualifying round, but I think her strength will give a good result” - Parul's American coach Scott Simmons to Express Before Asiad
women's 5000m: Here's the moment Parul Chaudhary overtook her opponent Hironaka, who was looking to her right but Parul made the move on the left! Stunning, stunning final burst
Women's women's 5000m: Parul Chaudhary snatches the gold away with a stunning minute burst in the last 50m. Japan's Hironaka Ririka , who was leading, stunned
Parul Chaudhary after her steeplechase silver is back in action in another final today. Also in action is Ankita.
Ancy Sojan (long jump silver) and Sreeshankar Murali ( long jump silver) on the stands to cheer their fellow athletes.
A brutal 4-1 loss for Sachin and one of the stranger ways an Indian boxer has missed out on a medal at a multi-sport event.
It encapsulates the India's men's boxing campaign at these Asian Games. We have Narender next who will need a win against Kunkabayev Kamshybek to ensure that the men's contingent takes atleast one Paris Olympics quota from Hangzhou.
So to put it in context, two judges scored the contest 20-18 in favour of Ping. One judge scored the content 20-18 in favour of Sachin. The other two judges scored the fight 19-19 all after one round and 17 seconds into the second round. But both of those judges gave preference to Lyu Ping, who had done more over the first round for them to deserve the victory.
Accidental clash of heads means Ping has a cut on his forehead and the referee stops the contest. Now it will depend on the scoring of the second round and only 17 seconds were spent in that round. Sachin believes that his punch landed the cut but its clear from the replays that it was a clash of heads.
This is quite a weird ending to this bout.
The judges give the decision to Liu Ping on a split decision after some of them give Sachin the fight in the second.
But this is incredibly unlucky for Sachin, who will feel aggrieved by this decision.
Two-time World Championship medallist Yoandri Betanzos must be under a lot of pressure himself after his trainee Jeswin Aldrin had a day to forget in the men's long jump. Will Chitravel bring redemption to the Cuban coach?
Wow that first round is scored in favour of Ping by four out of five judges. Sachin needs to take this round to bring parity back into this bout.
Chitravel's coach Yoandri Betanzos is sprinting between stands to pass on instructions between jumps, signals something about his takeoff; Chitravel, covering himself with a mundu and a jacket on a nippy night, responds by slapping his thighs and letting out a loud c'mon. Hasn't stood still even for a second since his last jump.
A roar as Ping manages to get a jab off. That home crowd advantage will need to be negated by Sachin for this bout. He lands a jab of his own soon enough in a round that's going to be tough to judge.
Rubina Yadav has failed to leap over the bar at 1.75m twice. One more shot before she is knocked out. Four jumpers have crossed the 1.80m already
Zhu Yaming, who is already leading, launches a 17.13m jump. Rest of the field has a lot of catching up to do
16.63m for Praveen Chitravel in his second attempt. No athlete has breached the 17m mark yet.
Santhosh Kumar, Yashas Palaksha finish outside the medal positions. We will confirm the timings when we get them.
India's 57kg boxer Sachin to take on China's Lyu Ping in the quarterfinals of the Asian Games next. A win here assures a bronze medal as well as a Paris Olympics quota. A loss would be a continuation of the poor showing of India's men's contingent at these Asian Games.
Tejaswin Shankar doesn't go past his Personal Best in javelin but does manage. to come up with his best effort of the day with his third attempt as he clears 51.17m. Points taken 606 and he is 2nd overall with just one event to go. Sun looks set for gold, with 1500m set to come. Can TJ break the national record now?
Course correction by Abdulla Aboobacker. Lands a decent 16.62m in his second attempt
Chithravel doesn't seem too happy with his first jump and finds himself sandwiched between the two Chinese. Fan Yaoqing is first with 16.78m, Chithravel second with 16.68m and Yaming Zhu is third currently with 16.41. One of many India-China duels this evening
Praveen Chitravel lands 16.68m in first attempt. He's on the second spot provisionally
16-year-old jump prodigy Pooja has cleared1.65 and 1.70 in her first attempts
In the Women's 400m hurdles event, we have a bronze medal for Vithya Ramraj!
In 100m hurdles event, women jump over 83.8cm tall hurdles. The men's equivalent race, is not just longer (men run 110 metres while women run 100 metres), the height of the hurdles is taller as well: men leap over hurdles of 107cm.
In the 400m hurdles, men clear hurdles that are 91.4cm high, while women negotiate 76.2cm barriers.