India bag four gold, three bronze on golden Day 11 at Asian Games

AICHI-NAGOYA, Sept 30: India produced a golden surge on Day 11 of the Asian Games, adding seven medals, including four gold and three bronze, with compound archers completing a clean sweep of all three team titles and securing an Olympic quota for LA 2028.

The compound archery squad dominated the day, with the women's team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep and Chikitha Taniparthi retaining the title with a world record-equalling 238 points against China.

Chikitha and Sahil Jadhav then prevailed in a dramatic mixed team final against South Korea. After the contest ended 157-157, India won the shoot-off, with both archers hitting 10s while the Korean final arrow landed in the nine. The victory retained India's Asian Games title and secured an LA 2028 quota in the event, which will make its Olympic debut.

The men's compound team of Sahil, Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru and Kushal Dalal completed the sweep by edging China 238-237. India trailed by two points at the halfway stage but produced a flawless final end, with all three archers hitting 10s with their final arrows.

Shooting also contributed gold, with Neeru Dhanda and Kynan Chenai winning the mixed team trap title with an Asian-record 34 points. The Indian pair recovered from a slow start and did not miss a target thereafter to finish ahead of Qatar.

For Neeru, it was her second gold and third medal of the Games, following her individual trap gold and team silver. Chenai also secured his third Asian Games medal.

Boxing added two bronze medals through Priya Ghanghas in the women's 60kg and Kapil Pokhariya in the men's 90kg. Priya lost 1-4 to China's Yang Chengyu, while Kapil went down 1-4 to reigning world champion Turabek Khabibullaev.

Lovlina Borgohain ensured another boxing medal for India by reaching the women's 75kg final with a 3-2 victory over reigning 70kg world champion Natalya Bogdanova. The Olympic medallist will face Asian champion Bao Ziyi of China in Friday's final.

Wrestling also opened its campaign with a medal as Sunil Kumar defeated the Philippines' Callum Johnston Roberts 9-0 by technical superiority to win bronze in the men's Greco-Roman 87kg category.

Sunil, who also won bronze at Hangzhou 2023, became the first Indian wrestler to win two Greco-Roman medals at the Asian Games.

India's women's hockey team advanced to the final with a 2-0 victory over South Korea. Ishika opened the scoring from a penalty corner in the 44th minute before captain Salima Tete doubled the advantage four minutes later.

India will meet defending champions China in Friday's final, their fourth appearance in the women's Asian Games title clash.

Squash provided two more medal assurances. The Indian women defeated Singapore 2-0 in the quarter-finals, with Tanvi Khanna and Anahat Singh winning their respective matches. The men's team also entered the semi-finals after a 2-0 victory over Kuwait and will face Malaysia.

In tennis, Sumit Nagal advanced to the men's singles quarter-finals after beating Uzbekistan's Sergey Fomin 6-3, 6-2, leaving him one victory away from a medal. Rutuja Bhosale and Yuki Bhambri exited the mixed doubles in the second round, while the Indian men's doubles teams also bowed out in the quarter-finals.

In golf, Pranavi Urs was second at four-under after the opening round of the women's individual event, while Diksha Dagar and Aditi Ashok were tied 18th. In the men's event, Saptak Talwar carded a four-under 66 to sit joint third, with India joint fifth in the team standings.

Judo's Asmita Dey narrowly missed a medal after losing the women's 48kg bronze-medal bout to Mongolia's Narantsetseg Ganbaatar.

India's Day 11 tally also included a sixth-place finish for Pradhyumna Singh Rathod in men's kayak single, while sport climber Deepu Mallesh reached the quarter-finals after breaking his own national record four times.

With the four gold medals taking India's gold tally to 10, the Aichi-Nagoya campaign moved into its decisive phase with further medal opportunities in cricket, squash, hockey and other disciplines.

(UNI)