Asian Games 2018 Day 5 Wrap: Shooting stars, shattered dreams in Kabaddi

Shooters continued to star on Thursday with Shardul Vihan and Rahi Sarnobat clinching silver and gold medals respectively. The biggest setback was in Kabaddi where a confident India were beaten by Iran in the semi-finals.

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15-year-old Shardul Vihan led the way by clinching the silver medal in men’s double trap shooting event. (Source: PTI)

The Indian contingent had a mixed outing on the fifth day of the 2018 Asian Games. Shooters continued to star on Thursday with 15-year-old Shardul Vihan leading the way by clinching the silver medal in the men’s double trap shooting event. Vihan, who became India’s youngest ever medal winner at the Asiads, was one point short of Korea’s Shin Hyunwoo who won the gold medal (74 points). Rahi Sarnobat made it a memorable occasion after becoming India’s first woman shooter with an Asian Games gold.

But disappointment was writ large as the men’s kabaddi side faced a shock defeat in the finals against Iran to settle for a bronze. Elsewhere in Pencak Silat India’s Naorem Boynao Singh defeated Kyrgystan’s Turatbek Sulaimankul Uulu to progress to the quarter-finals.

Unfortunately, with zero movements in the gold medals tally, India slipped to 10’th spot on the table (4 gold, 4 silver and 10 bronze medals taking the tally 18 medals.)

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READ: Asian Games 2018: Records broken by Indian athletes at Asian Games

The story of yet another teenager bagging a medal was the highlight of the day. Vihan battled hard throughout the event to finish ahead of Qatar’s Hamad Ali Al Marri (third with 53 points).

Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan’s gritty win to enter the men’s doubles final, assuring India of a silver. Another tennis medal was assured when Prajnesh Gunneswaran (world number 161) outlasted Kwon Soonwoo (273rd ranked) of South Korea 6-7 (2 ), 6-4, 7-6 (8) in the quarterfinal. Ankita Raina won the Bronze medal in Indonesia after a hard-fought contest against China’s Zhang Shuai.

PV Sindhu triumphed over Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam while Saina Nehwal progressed into the next round. Saurav Ghosal set up a quarterfinal clash with compatriot Harinder Pal Sandhu in the squash men’s singles event.

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Indian squash players maintained a good run as Joshna Chinappa qualified for the quarter-final.

With the current tally of four gold, three silver and eight bronze medals in their overall tally, India stood seventh in the medal table, which was led by China- 82 medals, including 37 gold.

Disappointments-

In archery, Deepika Kumari bowed out in recurve archery event while in swimming, national records were shattered but no medals came off the effort. In weightlifting Commonwealth Games, gold-medallist Sathish Sivalingam got injured in the men’s 77kg category competition. Sivalingam’s injury occurred in his attempt of 178 kg in clean and jerk (lifting a total of 314kg).

Deepika Kumari bowed out in recurve archery event. (Source: PTI)

But the biggest setback was in Kabaddi where a confident India were beaten for the by Iran in the semi-finals by a margin of 18-27. “We lost the match due to the captain’s over confidence, injury played a part and super tackle,” PTI quoted India coach Ram Mehar Singh saying after the defeat. This will the first time the men in blue won’t be winning a Kabaddi gold at the Asian Games since the sport was introduced in 1990.

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Indian rowing contingent had a disastrous day, missing out on as many as four medals. Dattu Bhokanal clocked clocking 8:28.56 to finish sixth and last in single sculls final.