Asian Games 2023: Parul Chaudhary, Annu Rani strike gold as India win big in athletics, collect nine medals on Day 10

India were one medal short of equalling their best-ever performance at the Asian Games at the end of Day 10, taking their overall tally to 69 by winning nine medals on Tuesday.

Two of those medals were gold, won by distance runner Parul Chaudhary and javelin thrower Annu respectively. The Indians won as many silver along with five bronze, enjoying another solid day in office.

Asian Games 2023 Day 10: As it happened

The day also witnessed the Indian men’s cricket team make its debut in the continental games, with opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal slamming a match-winning century in the Men in Blue’s 23-run quarter-final victory over Nepal.

At the end of Tuesday’s events, India firmly held on to the fourth spot on the medal table, staying ahead of nations such as Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei and Thailand.

The prospect of catching up with the big three nations China, Japan and South Korea, however, appears a tad out of reach, and the Indian contingent for now will focus on taking their medal tally into three digits and finishing fourth at the end of the competition.

With Day 4 coming to a close, we revisit the medals won by Indian athletes along with other highlights:

Rowing: Arjun, Sunil clinch bronze

The first medal of the day came in the canoe event which was the first for India since 1994.

Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh Salam clinched a bronze medal in the men’s canoe double 1000m event. The Indian duo clocked a timing of 3:53.329 seconds to finish third. In the 1994 Hiroshima Games, Siji Sadanandan and Johnny Rommel had won bronze in the same event.

Uzbekistan’s Shokhmurod Kholmuradov and Nurislom Tukhtasin Ugli who won the gold registered a timing of 3:43.796s while Kazakhstan pair of Timofey Yemelyanov and Sergey Yemelyanov bagged the silver clocking 3:49.991s.

Boxing: Preeti, Narender win bronze; Lovlina clinches Olympic quota

The second medal came in boxing as Preeti Pawar bagged bronze in the women’s 54kg category after her 0-5 defeat to flyweight champion China’s Chang Yuan in the semi-finals. Preeti has already secured an Olympic quota.

Besides Preeti, Narender Berwal also signed off with a bronze medal after losing his semi-final bout in the +92kg category.

Additionally world champion Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) locked an Olympic quota for herself by moving into the final.

Borgohain, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, cleverly managed her bout against Asian Championship silver medallist Baison Manikon of Thailand to win by an unanimous 5-0 decision and remain in the hunt for a gold medal in the continental showpiece.

Narender went down 0-5 to Olympic and world championship medallist Kamshybek Kunkabayev of Kazakhstan in the semifinal to miss out on an Olympic quota.

In a bizarre incident, Sachin Siwach lost his 57kg quarterfinal 1-4 bout to Lyu Ping in three minutes and 7 seconds after the Chinese sustained a cut on his forehead following a clash of the head between the two boxers.

Ping had won the first round 4-1 and when it was clear he couldn’t continue boxing due to the bleeding, the judges decided to rule the bout in favour of the Chinese.

Athletics: Chaudhary, Rani strike gold as India register best-ever athletics performance

Parul Chaudhary pulled off a heist for a sensational women’s 5000m gold, while Annu Rani conjured up her season-best performance to claim the top prize in women’s javelin throw as Indian athletes bagged six medals from track and field on Tuesday.

With two gold, two silver and two bronze, India’s medal tally from athletics rose to 22 (4 gold, 10 silver, 8 bronze), surpassing the 20 medals that the country had achieved in 2018 edition. This has already become the highest number of medals in athletics after the 34 won in the inaugural edition in 1951.

Parul stamped her class to become the first woman to win an Asian Games gold medal in 5000m race, to add to the 3000m steeplechase silver that she won on Monday.

in Women’s 5000m at #HangzhouAsianGames with a thrilling last-gasp push

The #TeamIndia athlete overtook ‘s Ririka Horonaka in the final few seconds to secure spot #AsianGames2023 #Athletics #Cheer4India #SonyLIV pic.twitter.com/WKqFT39d5j

— Sony LIV (@SonyLIV) October 3, 2023

The 28-year-old was behind Japan’s Ririka Hironaka in the closing stage but produced a stunning dash in the final 40 metres to claim the yellow metal with a timing of 15:14.75.

Later, the 31-year-old Annu, who had been in awful form the whole season, produced a season-best effort of 62.92m in her fourth attempt to became the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold in javelin throw.

This was her second Asian Games medal as she had won a bronze in the 2014 edition.

Delhi boy Tejaswin Shankar established himself as the country’s unrivalled decathlete by clinching a silver in the gruelling 10-event discipline with national record total points of 7666 total points. He made a fourth-place finish in the 1500m — the final event of the physically-demanding competition.

Can’t keep calm as we welcome another #Silver from #Athletics#TOPSchemeAthlete @TejaswinShankar is giving us more reasons to smile with his shiny silver in Men’s Decathlon.

With a cumulative score of 7666 points, Tejaswin clinched a new NR and first medal in Decathlon… pic.twitter.com/zL93qMSjsO

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) October 3, 2023

Muhammed Afsal also picked up a silver in the men’s 800m race with a time of 1:48.43s, before national record holder triple jumper Praveen Chitravel won a bronze with a below-par performance of 16.68m.

In women’s 400m hurdles, Vithay Ramraj, 25, failed to match her national record equalling time of 55.42 seconds which she had clocked during the heats but won a bronze with a time of 55.68 seconds.

The Indian had equalled PT Usha’s 400m hurdle national record, which was set in 1984, with a personal best effort of 55.52s to top her heat and directly qualify for the final on Monday.

In men’s 400m hurdles, Yashas Palaksha (49.39) and Santhosh Kumar (49.41) finished fifth and sixth respectively in the final.

In women’s high jump final, Pooja and Rubina Yadav ended their campaign at the sixth and ninth positions respectively.

Cricket: Jaiswal shines as India defeat Nepal to enter men’s semis

Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed a blazing hundred to lead India to Asian Games semifinals but cricketers from Nepal showed a lot of promise by putting up a fearless fight in their 23-run defeat here on Tuesday.

Jaiswal, Indian cricket’s new pin-up boy, earned the distinction of being the youngest T20I centurion from the country en route his 49-ball-100 that took India to a healthy 202 for 4.

The men from the Himalayan nation made a match of it but lack of experience became their undoing as their innings ended at 179 for 9, ensuring a last four spot for Ruturaj Gaikwad’s men.

Kabaddi: India men’s and women’s team register big wins

Indian kabaddi players had a good day in office as both the men’s and women’s teams notched up comprehensive victories in their group fixtures at the Asian Games here on Tuesday.

The Indian men’s team, who are a record seven-time champions, began their campaign with an emphatic 55-18 win over Bangladesh in a group A match.

Later in the day, the women’s side recorded a 56-23 win over South Korea in their second group A game. India, last edition’s silver medallist, were held to a surprise 34-34 draw by Chinese Taipei in their opening match on Monday.

Archery: Deotale, Verma setup all-Indian men’s compound final

Ojas Deotale set up an all-Indian final against Abhishek Verma in the men’s compound event to confirm the first-ever individual gold medal for the country in archery at the Asian Games.

On a day when the recurve archers ended their campaign in individual sections following the painful exits of Atanu Das and Dhiraj Bommadevara, Deotale, Verma and seasoned Jyothi Surekha Vennam led the charge in compound section to assure India of three medals.

It also matched their best-ever haul of 2014 Asian Games in Incheon where they had won a gold, silver and bronze each.

Seventeen-year-old Aditi Swami, who is the reigning senior world champion, will fight for a bronze after losing to her ‘role model’ Jyothi in the women’s compound individual semi-final.

The Indian archers also remained in the hunt for a podium finish in six more team events — three each in recurve and compound — having already advanced into the quarterfinals on Monday.

With inputs from PTI