Asian Games 2023: Neeraj Chopra defends javelin gold; Lovlina Borgohain wins silver in boxing

India’s medal rush continued Wednesday at the Asian Games as they achieved their best-ever medal haul on Day 11 of the Hangzhou 2022. With 69 medals secured by the end of Day 10, it was a bronze medal in the 35km race walk mixed team event Wednesday that helped India equal their previous best of 70 medals from 2018.

Ram Baboo and Manju Rani won the mixed team bronze in the 35km race walk with a combined timing of 5:51:14.

Asian Games 2023: Day 11 LIVE updates

China won the 35km race walk mixed gold with a Games record timing of 5:16:41 while Japan bagged silver with 5:22:11.

Soon after Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale clinched gold in the mixed team compound archery event to guide India to a record 71 medals at the 2023 Asian Games. Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale combined to beat South Korea 159-158 in a closely contested gold medal match.

The bronze was won by the Chinese Taipei team which defeated Kazakhstan in the match for third place.

Neeraj strikes gold, silver for Kishore Jena 

It was a historic result for India in the men’s javelin throw competition, as Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra struck gold in Hangzhou. Kishore Jena clinched silver medal to lead India to a one-two finish in javelin throw.

With the result, Neeraj successfully defended his gold medal that he had won in Jakarta five years back.

Neeraj finished with a best throw of 88.88m, whereas Kishore clinched a distance that went 87.54m.

Bronze in squash and boxing

Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh won a bronze in the squash mixed doubles team event after their campaign ended with a semi-final defeat to Malaysia’s Aifa Binti Azman and Mohammad Syafiq Kamal. The Indian pair lost 11-8, 2-11, 9-11.

In the women’s 57kg category, boxer Parveen Hooda bagged a bronze after her 0-5 defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Ting Yu Lin.

Silver for Borgohain

Olympic medallist and world champion Lovlina Borgohain won a silver after losing 0-5 to China’s Qian Lin in the final of the women’s 75kg event. This was the first Asian Games medal for the boxer from Assam who has already won a quota for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

India have so far won a total of 74 medals including 16 gold, 27 silver and 31 bronze.

Gold for India men’s 4×400 relay team, silver for women 

The India men’s team of Muhammad Anas, Muhammad Variyathodi, Rajesh and Amol Jacob clinched gold medal in the men’s 4×400 relay, finishing ahead of Qatar and Sri Lanka, who won silver and bronze respectively.

The women’s team of Vithya Ramraj, Aishwarya Mishra, Prachi and Subha Venkatesan, meanwhile, clinched silver medal with a timing of 3:27.85, behind Bahrain, who finished with a timing of 3:27.65.

Sri Lanka clinched bronze medal with a timing of 3:30.88.

Among other notable results in athletics,

Harmilan Bains and Avinash Sable won a silver medal each in women’s 800m and men’s 5000m respectively.

While Harmilan clocked an impressive timing of 2:03.75 to bag the silver, Sable produced an effort of 13:21.09.

In men’s high jump, Anil Kushare produced a season best jump of 2.26m but it was not enough as he missed a medal, finishing at the fourth spot. He needed to clear the 2.29m mark to stay in the fight for a medal.

Jesse Sandesh produced a jump of 2.19m to finish 9th.

India’s Sheena Varkey Nellickal finishes sixth in the Women’s Triple Jump final with a throw of 13.34m.

India beat Korea to reach men’s hockey final 

India defeated South Korea 5-3 in a hard-fought semifinal to enter the title clash of the men’s hockey competition on Wednesday.

The Indians, who had an easy run in the pool stages recording big wins, were made to toil by the Koreans despite taking a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.

India, who won a bronze in the last edition, will be eyeing a repeat of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, where they won the yellow metal.

A gold in the ongoing Asian Games is of huge significance for the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallists as it will ensure their direct entry into the 2024 Paris Games.

Hardik Singh (5th minute), Mandeep Singh (11th), Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (15th), Amit Rohidas (24th) and Abhishek (54th) were the goal-getters for India, while Manjae Jung (17th, 20th, 42nd) scored a hat-trick for Korea but it went in vain.

With inputs from PTI