Eventful day for India at Asian Games with silver in relay and badminton, first bronze in TT
A jobless and unheralded Manjit Singh came from nowhere to snatch the men’s 800m gold for the biggest medal of his life but finals continued to be a riddle for PV Sindhu, taking some sheen off her historic silver at the 18th Asian Games on Tuesday. Unexpected haul of a silver and a bronze in Kurash, an indigenous Central Asian form of wrestling, added to the tally, along with a silver in the debut event of mixed 4x400m relay in athletics.
With Tuesday’s performance with maiden Games medal in Table Tennis, India rose a rung to eighth in the overall standings with a total of 50 medals, nine of them gold, 19 silver and 22 bronze medals. The country is now seven short of matching the 2014 tally.
The 31-year-old Manjit, a resident of Jind in Haryana, who doesn’t even have a national gold to his credit, chose the Asian Games to find the limelight. In fact, he snatched it from the seasoned Jinson Johnson with a personal best of 1:46.15sec. Johnson finished second for a silver, a rare 1-2 for India at the Games. It was India’s only second one-two finish in 800m at the Games since Ranjit Singh and Kulwant Singh achieved the feat at the inaugural edition held in New Delhi in 1951.
“I saw videos of my races at national and international events and analysed the mistakes. I was motivated to improve myself. I never thought of bettering the national mark. I just wanted to give my best. I don’t have a job but my coach is from Army,” said Manjit, who comes from a family of farmers.
A lot of middle-eastern countries have imported physically strong African athletes to power their athletics squad but Manjit said he was confident to outshine them. “Indian athletes are doing well. Tejinderpal Singh Toor and Neeraj Chopra had won gold and that also motivated me. Even those who won silver, they have won with national record,” Manjit said.
India then clinched a silver 4x400m mixed relay race, finishing behind Bahrain. The quartet of Muhammed Anas, MR Poovamma, Hima Das and Arokia Rajiv clocked 3:15.71 seconds, while Bahrain ran away with the gold in 3:11.89. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Tuesday lodged a protest against Bahrain for causing obstruction to Hima Das during the 4x400 mixed relay in which India finished second after MR Poovamma frittered away a good 30m lead. The protest has been admitted by the jury of appeals which will give a ruling at 10am (local time) on Wednesday.
In the morning competitions, compound archers picked up silver medals in both the men’s and women’s team events, going down to South Korea in both the finals. It wasn’t a particularly disappointing or unexpected result but the fact that the men could not defend their gold from the 2014 edition would rankle.
Then came Sindhu and her final jinx, compounded by her inability to find an answer to world No.1 Tai Tzu-Ying’s deceptive game that has left most bamboozled. For the sixth successive time, the Indian was no match for the Taipei player despite her claims of having a strategy in place for her. “If I had played patiently and kept the shuttle in, it could have been different. It was not easy to take points from her because her defence was also good,” she said after collecting India’s first ever singles silver in the Asian Games competition.
The surprise package of the day title went to Kurash, a form of wrestling indigenous to Central Asia in which the aim is to throw the rival off his/her feet by using a towel to hod them in place. India collected medals through Pincky Balhara (silver) and Malaprabha Yallappa Jadhav (bronze) in the women’s 52kg category. The two teenagers didn’t even have enough money to buy their kits and got them only after the intervention of the sports ministry.
“People in my village pooled in Rs 1.75 lakh to send me to training camp. They all have supported me a lot. I am forever indebted to them,” a teary-eyed Balhara told PTI.
In Table Tennis, India signed off with its maiden Games medal, losing in the semifinals to Korea to settle for a bronze. The Indian table tennis men’s team settled for a historic bronze medal after going down 0-3 to South Korea in a lop-sided semifinal at the 18th Asian Games. The team comprising G Sathiyan, Achanta Sharath Kamal and A Amalraj couldn’t put up a fight against the mighty Koreans, who set up a summit clash against defending champions China in a repeat of 2014 edition.
India continued its march ahead with another fairly comfortable wins in the squash team event. Barring Harinder Pal Sandhu, who lost to Al Tamini Abdulla in the men’s tie against Qatar, no other Indian faced any problem as both the men and the women inched ahead in their pursuit to qualify from the group stage.
There was no stopping the hockey juggernaut with defending champion Indian men’s team making a mockery of Sri lanka, pumping in 20 goals to remain unbeaten in the pool stages. It has been a scintillating performance from the Indians in the pool stage as they have scored as many as 76 goals and conceded just three.
However, the boxers endured a winless day with both Pavitra (60kg) and Sonia lather (57kg) losing in the quarterfinal stage to bow out of women’s competition.
Also today, the Indian men’s volleyball team lost 1-3 to Pakistan in a 7-12 classification match.