It was a historic day for India at the 2023 Asian Games with a young equestrian team winning the country's first-ever Asiad gold in Team Dressage, with Sudipti Hajela, Divyakriti Singh, Hriday Chheda and Anush Agarwala finishing on top of the podium.
The Indian team of Sudipti (up on Chinski), Divyakriti (Adrenalin Firfod), Hriday (Chemxpro Emerald) and Anush (on Etro) scored 209.206 percentage points to finish ahead of hosts China, who scored 204.882. Hong Kong China won the bronze medal with a score of 204.852.
This is India's second medal in Team Dressage event in the Asian Games after the bronze won by the team of Jitendarjit Singh Ahluwalia, Ghulam Mohammed Khan and Raghubir Singh when the sport made its debut in the 1982 edition held in New Delhi. At that edition of the games, India had also won three equestrian gold medals- in Individual Eventing, Team Eventing and Individual Tent Pegging, events that have not been held since 1982.
Before Hangzhou, India had won 3 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze medals in equestrian at the Asian Games. In 2018, India had won two silver medals in equestrian, both coming in Eventing with Fouaad Mirza finishing second in the Individual competition and then partnering Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik and Jitender Singh to silver in the Team event.
But the young combination of Sudipti Hajela, Divyakriti Singh, Hriday Chheda and Anush Agarwalla overcame all hurdles on Tuesday to make a historic achievement for Indian equestrian at Hangzhou.
(With inputs from IANS)
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