Gold at last in shooting: Suruchi-Kamaljeet break the jinx

Nagoya: Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet held their nerves in the 10m air pistol mixed team final to deliver India’s first shooting gold of the ongoing Asian Games, lifting the contingent’s morale with a record-breaking performance here on Friday.

Adding to the joy was a silver from the men’s 50m rifle 3-position team, though that medal carried a sense of what might have been as the trio of Aishwary Pratap Singh, Rudrankksh Patil and Niraj Kumar had led China for a substantial part of the competition before finishing second. Paired with Kamaljeet, a late replacement for Kedarling Uchaganve, Suruchi helped India dominate the four-team final from the opening series. The Indian pair combined for 484.6, a Games and Asian record, with 20-year-old Suruchi contributing 245.7 and Kamaljeet 238.9. South Korea finished a distant second with 478.0, 6.6 points adrift, while Iran took bronze with 415.8.

Their gold could prove to be the catalyst for an improved shooting performance in the remainder of the competition.

The ranges also threw up a silver thanks to the men’s 50m rifle 3-position team of Aishwary Pratap Singh, Rudrankksh Patil and Niraj Kumar. They looked on course for gold for much of the competition, only for China to finish strongly and deny them the top step. India finished with an aggregate of 1762, four points behind China’s 1766.

Aishwary led the Indian effort with 589, while Niraj shot 588 and former 10m air rifle world champion Rudrankksh shot 585 to take India to 1762.

India’s medals tally increases

In track-and-field, long-distance runner Gulveer Singh improved on the bronze he won in the 2023 Hangzhou edition to silver in men’s 10,000m clocking 28:29.38 seconds in a trademark assured run. He finished second behind Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew, who claimed the gold in 28:27.51 minutes. With bronze medals from shot-putter Manpreet Kaur and mixed table tennis team also added to the tally, India’s total increased to 22 medals. For Manpreet, this was her first major international medal since 2023. She took the third place with an effort of 17.17m. Aishwary and Niraj also made it to the individual final, in third and fourth positions respectively, but could not fetch medals.

In the table Tennis competition, Manush Shah and Diya Chitale claimed the mixed doubles bronze. They lost 0-4 to the Chinese pair of Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin in the last four stage.

Boxing: Sachin enters quarters

At the boxing arena, Sachin Siwach moved to the men’s 60kg quarterfinals with a scrappy 4-1 win over Jordan’s Mohammad Adnan Abu Jajeh. However, it was curtains for last edition’s bronze-medallist Preeti Pawar. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist, who received a first round bye, went down 0-5 to North Korea’s reigning Asian Games champion Pang Chol M in the women’s 54kg round of 16.

Hockey: India women stay unbeaten

The Indian women’s hockey team continued its unbeaten run, beating hosts Japan 3-1 to register its fourth consecutive win and virtually seal a semifinal berth at the Asian Games here on Friday. The Indians scored through Lalremsiami (5th minute), Ishika Chaudhary (30th) and Navneet Kaur (36th). Japan’s lone goal was scored by Shiho Kobayakawa in the 46th minute. India will round off their Pool B campaign against Singapore on Sunday.

India suffered a double setback in the fencing events with both the men’s foil and women’s epee teams knocked out in the round of 16. The men’s foil team suffered a 27-45 defeat to Hong Kong, while the women’s epee side went down 29-45 to Uzbekistan.