Mihir Vasavda at Asian Games: At China’s virtual show, digital torchbearer lights flame, river flows inside stadium
THEY COULDN’T hold the opening ceremony by the river or the lake, so they brought the river and the lake to the Asian Games here on Saturday. And the evening that began with a whoosh ended with a silent flicker.
China, the country believed to have given the world fireworks, shunned one of its most widely-used inventions for soundless, smokeless sparks in the ceremony that dazzled with digital creations and boundless imagination.
The 115-minute extravaganza, aesthetic and awe-inspiring, at the 81,000-seater Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium saw augmented reality — rivers and waves, 3D stadiums and flying sports equipment, virtual torchbearers and people in the sky performing to traditional tunes. (READ MORE)
Read more Asian Games stories below
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Asian Games: India survive odds, ride Sunil Chhetri penalty for Myanmar draw and Round of 16 spot
Asian Games rowing: Why were there nine men competing in the Men’s Eight rowing event?
Asian Games: Nikhat Zareen starts boxing campaign with resounding win
On Day 2, the gold rush began for Indian athletes. Men’s rifle shooting team and Harmanpreet Kaur and Co in cricket opened India’s account in the first column of the medal tally. On Day 3, attention will once again be on the shooting contingent primarily. There are medal events potentially lined up in judo and cycling later in the day based on how the athletes perform in the early rounds. (Read more about tomorrow's schedule)
There is no "Q" yet on the official page but after all rotations are done, looks like Pranati Nayak has qualified for vault apparatus final, her pet event. The legendary Oksana is there too, 48 yrs young & qualifying for vault finals).
Pranati will be in all-round final too.
A combined boxing report of India on Day 2 of the Asian Games coming up shortly on the Indian Express. World championship bronze medallists Deepak Bhoria and Nishant Dev advance to the next round but Arundhati Chaudhary falls to World Champion Yang Liu in the women's 66kg category.
Nishant Dev scores a unanimous 5-0 decision over Nepal's Dipesh Lama who puts up a brave fight but gets out-pointed by the World's bronze medallist at the Asian Games.
Wushu, Men's 65Kg: India's Vikrant Baliyan goes down against Indonesia's Samuel Marbun by a 1-2 scoreline.
Another standing eight count in the third. Far more deserved this time around as Dev really lands some crushing shots. The third round comes to an end and it's now to the judges.
One good thing about this bout for Dev is that it's not as energy sapping as Deepak Bhoria's bout was. It isn't just about the wins today but preserving your fitness for further matches against better opponents.
A standing eight count given for Lama as that round ends. A bit premature that as he was looking quite good in that round. But Dev gets all judges to score the second for him as well.
When Lama gets inside Dev's range, he has the ability to do better than the Indian, who isn't able to get shots off when his opponent is closer to his body. But Dev at range can land at will that's where he needs to keep this fight.
Lama finishes that round very strong and manages to land a couple of punches of his own. The judges seem to think that it still wasn't enough as Dev gets all judges to score the first round 10-9
Nishant Dev starts strong, leading with a confident jab. He has quite the reach advantage here against Lama
Nishant Dev to go up against Nepal's Dipesh Lama in a first round bout in the 71kg category.
Wushu, Men's 65Kg: Vikrant Baliyan in action for India, in this round of 16 contest.
Swimming, Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay: India finish 7th in the 8-team final with a timing of 7:29.23. Hong Kong China disqualified. Korea take the gold with Asian recod in a rare non-China win.
Swimming, Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay: India will be in action here shortly. The team of Tanish Mathew, Aneesh Gowda, Kushagra Rawat, Aryan Nehra in action
A gold medal for the Indian women's cricket team in its maiden appearance as it defeated Sri Lanka by 19 runs
Smriti Mandhana says if cricket got included in the Olympics, they would look forward to it as much as the World Cup. Mandhana was speaking after the Indian women's cricket team claimed the gold medal, India's second at the Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games, by defeating the Sri Lankan team in the women's final.
There is a possibility that cricket could be included in the Olympic program for the Los Angeles Games in 2028. And Mandhana threw her weight behind the idea.
"As cricketers, we watch a lot of Olympic sports and follow all the athletes that win medals for us (India). We could experience that a little today when the national anthem played, which was a special moment because we don't get to experience that a lot despite being athletes. It would be amazing if it (cricket at the Olympics) happened, because we would look forward to it as much as a World Cup," she said.
A men's relay final in swimming and Nishant Dev in boxing... so stay tuned for a bit longer.
Likith Selvaraj finishes 7th in the Men's 100m Breaststroke Final with a timing of 1:01.62. A Games Record 57.76 from Chinese star Qin Haiyang.
Likith Selvaraj in action in the Men's 100m Breaststroke Final
Wushu men's sanda 60kg: Surya Bhanu Partap Singh, bronze medallist in 2018, is now through to the quarterfinals in 2023. He is one win away from the podium.
Wushu men's sanda 60kg: Surya Bhanu Partap Singh in action now. This is a round of 16 contest.
Deepak Bhoria lands a unanimous 5-0 decision in his first ever Asian Games bout over Malaysia's Muhammad Qaiyum. The unanimous decision doesn't showcase the effort this took out from the Indian. Not a good thing when you consider that top boxers in his bracket and all of whom he would have to face in order to secure that quota for the Paris Olympics.
Bhoria's counters are really effective. It helps that he has faster hands as well. The Malaysian seems to have slowed down and Deepak rushes forward to land a right of his own. This should be straightforward for the Indian from here on out. That gulf in quality really becomes apparent when fatigue becomes an issue. Bhoria's game transitions to counters and the Malaysian's game became about rushing the Indian but getting pinged with minimal returns. The third ends and now we wait for the judges.
Wild swings but Bhoria gets out of the way and unleashes some fast hands. A few clip the Malaysian but it's still such a dicey match to judge
Four judges give that round to Bhoria, one to the Malaysian. The Indian needs to play it smart in the third.
Lovely cross by Bhoria that lands. He needs to rely more on volume because the Malaysian's landed more this round and is bound to sway the judges
The Malaysian likes to step in and try his combinations. This round has been a lot more tougher for Bhoria to deal with. His output has slightly gone down as well.
All judges score the first 10-9 in Bhoria's favour
Bhoria gets two hits off, takes a step back and lands one on his way out. It's a tough one but that first round should go Bhoria's way
Deepak lands a jab and then a cross. That's a wonderful combination by the Haryana boxer
Deepak Bhoria, World's bronze medallist, battles Bin Ariffin Qaiyum Abdul Muhammed of Malaysia.
Srihari Nataraj finishes 6th in the men's 50m backstroke final with a timing of 25.39s.
MEDAL ASSURED: Roshibina Devi Naorem wins her quarterfinal against her KAZ opponent in women's -60kg and that assures her a place on the podium. She won bronze in 2018 Jakarta as well.
Wushu and swimming action coming: In women's 60kg sanda quarterfinal, Roshibina Naorem in action. Srihari Nataraj will take to the pools in men's 50m backstroke final.
Arundhati Chaudhary drops a unanimous 5-0 decision to China's Yang Liu in the Asian Games women's 66kg category. A tough, tough draw for the Indian who would ideally have gone farther in the bracket had there been seedings at this tournament.
Yang is coasting now. Even though Arundhati lands a punch here and there, its been quite one-sided.
The volume of punches landed by Yang and her defence when some are launched her way, are the difference here. Arundhati is just unable to move her head when that straight jab appears. It's been the story of this fight.
Yang is simply too good. She lands a jab, slants her head away to avoid Arundhati's response and then releases a hook that finds its mark. It's all too much for the Indian who's really not been helped by a tough draw owing to the lack of seeding at these Asian Games. The second round is given to the Chinese as well. All judges score the fight 20-18 after two rounds.
Yang hits straight punches that land flush and Arundhati tries looping lefts that never find their mark. The Indian needs to start hitting straighter shots if she needs to keep her hopes of staying in the Asian Games stay alive
First round down and all judges have scored it 10-9 in the Chinese's favour
Wang Liu lands a left hook and moments later gets her jab to hit Arundhati. Both clinch up soon but the Chinese boxer's range is a huge difference maker in this bout. Both are southpaw boxers and Chaudhary is managing to land some hooks of her own, but they're nowhere close to the output of Liu as of now
India's Arundhati Choudhary, who won the Junior National Boxing Championship in Haryana in 2017, is up next against China's Yang Liu in the round of 16 bout.
Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi won their respective matches but Harika Dronavalli slumped to a defeat against China's Hou Yifan (world no. 1)
India’s first gold medal of the Asian Games was a team triumph in a sport famous for its brutal individualistic nature. The trio who opened the account are young men, one in his teens and two others in their early 20s. In their moments of glory, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rudrankksh Patil and Divyansh Singh Panwar were blissfully unaware of what they achieved. Not only had they won the gold, but the Indian riflemen also broken the World Record and in the process, broke two other marks – the Asian as well as Asian Games records.
“I was packing my stuff after the qualification round when my coach came and told me we’d set the team world record,” Patil, the youngest of the three at 19, said. “So, I assumed if we’ve broken the world record, it must be a gold medal as well.” Tomar had already trained his guns on the final. “My focus was totally on that, I didn’t even notice the team score," he said.
Tomar went on to win the individual bronze a little later.
Fast bowler Titas Sadhu, mentored by veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, took three wickets and dismantled Sri Lanka’s top order in the women's cricket final of the Asian Games at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field stadium as India won by 19 runs to win gold. Like Jhulan had done for India over the years, Titas got the early breakthroughs to put the Lankans on the backfoot. “Like any Bengal cricketer, Titas idolizes Jhulan Goswami and Rumeli Dhar (all-rounder and medium pacer). She often practices the inswinger like Goswami. When she had started playing cricket, Titas had the natural outswinger and she improved her inswinger under me and coach Priyankar Mukherjee. She always dreamt about playing for India at the senior level and winning the gold medal for the Indian cricket team in China will motivate her further. It's a huge thing for the whole family as well as Indian cricket and she will cherish this moment,” her father Ranadeep Sadhu told The Indian Express from Kolkata.
There could have been questions about India opting to bat, playing into Sri Lanka's strengths. Even India's batting approach was on the conservative side. But they read the conditions well today, with the pitch deteriorating as the day went along, with puffs of dust coming up often. You'd have to say both were right calls looking back. (Two more overs of Chamari could've been decisive but due credit to them).
Mithali Raj told Indian Express earlier: “Having the favourites tag is one thing, but actually having the medal around your neck is completely different. And for that, you have to go through the process of doing the right things. India have to play to their potential, no one will be giving it to them easily. The way we play against Australia, we need to keep improving that in all matches, improving our standards. This tournament, if India can win the gold, will help us to build forward. Having that gold medal will be a big boost.”
Indeed so, India did what was expected of them and have brought home the gold.
India have won the gold medal in women's cricket. Harmanpreet Kaur & Co defeat Sri Lanka in the final, winning India's first cricket gold in Asian Games (first time the country has featured in this sport). This is also the country's 2nd gold of this edition. Came into the tournament as favourites & lived up to their billing.
Two wickets in two overs for India as Nilakshi de Silva snares Nilakshi de Silva with a brilliant yorker. Then, Deepti Sharma picks up Ranasinghe for 19. SL loose both their well-set batters. SLW: 87/6 after 18 overs
So Titas Sadhu has conceded 6 runs each in her two major finals this year. Titas Sadhu with some nice symmetry. In the ICC Women's Under-19 T20 World Cup final she had figures of 4-0-6-2 and now in the Asian Games final she finishes with 4-1-6-3. Grand total of 12 runs conceded from 8 overs for 5 wickets. SLW: 78/4 after 16 overs
The last 5 overs is where India struggled, lost their way. So Sri Lanka can make up some ground here. 43 off 30 balls needed. This could well go down to the wire. SLW: 74/4 after 15 overs
Ranasinghe gets a much needed boundary off Deepti Sharma and eight come off the over. Sri Lanka are certainly not going down without a fight. Need 49 from 36 balls. SLW: 68/4 after 14 overs
Indian bowlers are keeping things tight with Devika Vaidya and Deepti Sharma conceding 2 and 4 runs respectively in their overs. Sri Lanka Women need 57 runs in 42 balls. The required run-rate is past eight. SLW: 60/4 after 13 overs
The Men's 100m Breaststroke final featuring Likith is at 5.43 pm and Srihari Nataraj's Men's 50m Backstroke final is at 5 pm IST. The Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay follows at 6.24 pm IST.
Sri Lanka have lost 4 wickets and Rajeshwari Gayakwad got the important breakthrough with Hasini Perera departing for 25. SL need another 63 off 55 balls. They have added 36 runs and lost only 1 wicket in last five overs. Nilakshi De Silva is the key wicket for India now! SLW: 54/4 after 11 overs
In women's doubles round 1, Karman Kaur Thandi and Rutuaj Bhosale registered a 6-4, 6-2 win against their KAZ opponents.
Nilakshi de Silva launches this one from Amanjot Kaur and clears the rope with ease! SIX! over deep square leg. SLW: 38/3 after 9 overs
Titas Sadhu becomes the first Indian to bowl a double wicket maiden in a T20I final. Last year, Deepti Sharma bowled a single wicket maiden in the Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka. She has bowled three overs and conceded just two runs but picked up three wickets. ! Incredible! SLW: 29/3 after 7 overs
In swimming, Srihari Nataraj has qualified for the finals of the 50m Backstroke event while Likith SP has made it to the finals of the 100m breaststroke. The men's 4x200m freestyle relay team will also feature in the final!
The Indian men's U23 3x3 basketball team has edged past Malaysia ???? by four points in a tense encounter. India claim a 20-16 win here. A morale-boosting win for the men's quartet of Amarendra Nayak, Kanwar Gurbaz Singh Sandhu, Lokendra Singh and Sejin Mathew