2023 Asian Games, Day 10 Wrap: Athletes Shine Again, India 4th on Medals Tally

2023 Asian Games, Day 10 Wrap: Six of India's nine medals came in the athletics section.

Indian athletes shone brightly on Day 10 of the 2023 Asian Games, winning six of the nine medals won by the contingent today. A couple of bronze medals came in boxing, with the canoe delegation also opening their account. At the end of the day, India are fourth in the medals tally with 69 medals – 15 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze.

The day started off with a bronze medal in men’s canoe C-2 1000m event, where the pair of Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh Salam clocked a timing of 3:53.59.

Boxer Preeti Pawar won the second bronze medal of the day, losing her semi-final bout in women’s 54kg category to Chinese pugilist Chang Yuan.

Vithya Ramraj kicked off proceedings in athletics by winning a bronze medal in women’s 400m, clocking a timing of 55.68s. The athlete from Coimbatore was also a part of the silver medal-winning 4x400m mixed relay team.

Parul Chaudhary became the first gold medallist of the day, finishing first in women's 5000m. For the 28-year-old athlete from Meerut, this is the second Asian Games medal, after she had won a silver medal in women's 3000m steeplechase.

Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath won a silver medal in men's 800m, by clocking a timing of 1:48.43.

Praveen Chithravel added to India's medal haul in athletics, by winning the bronze medal in men's triple jump. The 22-year-old's best attempt was 16.68m, while fellow Indian athlete, Abdulla Aboobacker finished fourth with a 16.62m best attempt.

Annu Rani became the day's second gold medallist for India, finishing first in women's javelin throw with a Season Best (SB) attempt of 62.92m. This is her second medal in Asian Games, after a bronze in Incheon 2014.

Tejaswin Shankar won the silver medal in men's decathlon. He finished fourth in the last event, 1500m, but that was enough for him to create a new National Record (NR) by accumulating a total of 7666 points.

Boxer Narender's campaign in Hangzhou ended with a bronze medal, as he was defeated by Kazakhstan's Kamshybek Kunkabayev in the semi-final bout of men's +92kg category. The 28-year-old from Haryana lost 0-5 on points.

Here's how the medals tally stands after Day 10:

Here’s everything that happened today, across every event:      

• Archery

Jyothi Surekha Vennam qualified for compound women’s individual final by beating fellow Indian archer, Aditi Gopichand Swami. 

In compound men’s individual, Abhishek Verma & Ojas Pravin Deotale qualified for the final.

However, both Indian archers in recurve men’s individual quarter-finals – Atanu Das and Dhiraj Bommadevara – were defeated.

• Athletics

(Besides the medalists)                    

Krishan Kumar was disqualified from men’s 800m for obstructing another participant.

In men’s 400m hurdles, 21-year-old Yashas Palaksha, who is a National Games gold medallist, finished fifth with a timing of 49.39s. Meanwhile, fellow Indian athlete Santosh Kumar Tamilarasan, who is an Asian Athletics Championships bronze medallist, finished in sixth place with a timing of 49.41s.

In women’s high jump, Rubina Yadav ended in ninth position with a best attempt of 1.75m, while Pooja ended in sixth position by recording 1.80m.

• Badminton

The Indian badminton contingent ended with victories in 5 of 6 matches at the Asian Games on Tuesday. Both HS Prannoy and Kidmabi Srikanth advanced to men’s singles’ Round of 16 after beating their opponents by 2-0 respectively.

The star Indian shuttler, PV Sindhu also won the Round of 32 by 2-0 against Chinese Taipei's Wen-Chi Hsu , advancing to the Round of 16. However, the other Indian women's singles contender, Ashmita Chaliha bowed out of the tournament after losing to Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the Round of 32.

Both Indian women's doubles pairs registered victories in the initial rounds too. Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand defeated their opponents from Maldives by 2-0 while the second pair of Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto also won their match, owing to retirement of the opposition.

Boxing

(Besides the medalists)

Boxer Sachin Siwach, a World Youth Championships gold medallist, saw his campaign ending in the quarter-final stage. The pugilist was defeated by China's Lyu Ping via split points (4-1).

However, Lovlina Borgohain qualified for the final of women’s 66-75kg by beating Thailand’s Baison Maneekon.

Chess

Both the Indian men’s and women’s teams are ranked second after five rounds.

• Cricket

India defeated Nepal by 29 runs to qualify for the semi-final of the competition, courtesy of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s century and Ravi Bishnoi’s three wickets.

• Kabaddi

The men’s team defeated Bangladesh 55-18 in their first match, while the women’s team brushed aside South Africa by a 56-23 margin in their second match.

• Hockey

The women’s team sailed into the semi-final round in style, by beating Hong Kong 13-0 in their last group stage match.

• Squash

The Indian squash contingent had a rewarding day, winning five of six games. Both Indian mixed doubles teams won their group stage as well as quarterfinal matches. The pair of Dipika Pallikal Karthik-Harinder Pal Sandhu and Anahat Singh-Anahat Singh made it to the semi-finals quite comfortably.

Saurav Ghosal also clinched a stunning 3-0 victory over Japan's Ryunosuke Tsukue in the quarterfinal of men's singles event. However, the day didn't go as well for Tanvi Khanna, who lost the quarters 3-0 to Japan's Satomi Watanabe in the women's singles event.