Asian Games Day 12 wrap: Archers, squash stars lead Gold rush as India march toward 100-medal target

India’s squash stars and compound archers led the medal rush on Day 12 of the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou. While the compound archery men and women’s teams won Gold medals, Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Singh won Gold in mixed doubles squash on a day when fellow veteran Saurav Ghosal clinched silver in men’s singles. Antim Panghal made sure the wrestler did not draw a blank on an action-packed day in Hangzhou.

India took its medal tally to 86, inching closer to the target of 100 medals in Asian Games 2023. It was on Wednesday that India, with 12 medals, went past their best-ever tally achieved at the Jakarta Asian Games and it seems new history will be scripted with two more days of action to go.

Asian Games: Full Coverage | Medal Table

INDIA’S MEDALISTS ON DAY 12

Archery

Compound Men’s Team – Gold

Ojas Pravin, Prathamesh Samadhan, Abhishek Verma

Compound Women’s Team – Gold

Parneet Kaur, Aditi Gopichand, Jyothi Surekha Vennam

Squash

Mixed Doubles – Gold

Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Singh

Men’s singles – Silver – Saurav Ghosal

Wrestling

Women’s 53kg freestyle wrestling – Bronze

SQUASH STARS IMPRESS

Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu went on to win the Gold medal, beating Alfa Azman and Mohammad Syafiq Kamal 11-10, 11-0 in the mixed doubles final. It was the first Gold medal for Dipika in the Asian Games to with a silver and 4 bronze medals. The 32-year-old and Harinder were in top form in the final, winning it in straight sets.

Saurav Ghosal completed the 5th medal later in the day for India in squash.

The men’s team had earlier clinched gold by beating Pakistan. The women’s team and the mixed doubles pair of Anahat and Abhay Singh had won bronze medals as well.

WRESTLING CAPSULE

India had as many as 4 wrestlers contesting for Bronze on Thursday but only one of them won their bouts.

Naveen lost to Korea’s Kim Minseok 5-1 in the men’s greco-roman 130kg bronze medal match.

Pooja Gehlot lost to Uzbekistan’s Aktenge 8-2 in the women’s 50kg freestyle bronze medal bout.

Mansi lost to Uzbekistan’s Laylokhom 2-0 in the women’s 57kg freestyle bronze medal bout.

Antim defeated Mongolia’s Bolortuya 3-1 to win 53kg women’s freestyle bronze medal bout.

PRANNOY AND SATCHI IMPRESS

Meanwhile, India badminton stars HS Prannoy and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the semi-finals of singles and doubles. Having already sealed a medal, Prannoy will face Li Shi Feng of China in the men’s singles semi-final while Satwik-Chirag will face Malaysia’s Aaron and Chia.

HS Prannoy defeated Malaysia’s Jia Zii Lee in a three-set battle. Prannoy started off the match with a 21-16 win victory in game one. Prannoy would have finished the match in the second game alone, but a tremendous fightback from the world no. 16 saw Prannoy drop the game 23-21. Prannoy had two match points on him in the second game and dropped them both, which forced the match into a decider.

The men’s doubles match was much simpler for India as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty smashed Singapore’s Prajogo Johann and Jie Joo Nge in just 31 minutes to seal a 2-0 victory. Sat-Chi won the first game 21-7 and the second game 21-9 in the quarter-final match.

PV Sindhu, however, was not able to match the expectations and lost her match in 47 minutes, in straight games – 16-21, 12-21

INDIA LOSE HOCKEY SEMIS

The wait for gold for India continues after they lost their semi-final match at the Asian Games 2023 on Thursday, October 5.

In the high-stakes semi-final match against China, the Indian team suffered a crushing 4-0 defeat, thereby missing out on their chance to compete in the final and potentially win the gold and seal qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics.