5 gold medals propel India to fourth spot at Asian Games
India continued its remarkable gold run for the second day on Saturday, bagging five coveted honours a day after winning six in the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan. Of course, all eyes were on the Indian men’s hockey team, and it trounced Malaysia 5-1 in the final. The other medals included cricket, wrestling, golf and archery. This stupendous effort saw India emerging fourth in the overall medals tally with 85 in its kitty.
The men’s hockey team won the gold medal after the women’s team secured it in a hard-fought match against China on Friday, ending a 44-year-long wait. This is the first time that both the men and women have ended on top in the same edition of the continental showpiece.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh rose to the occasion with a brace as a dominant India thrashed Malaysia to clinch the gold for the second time in the Asian Games and book a 2028 Olympics berth.
Harmanpreet (11th and 57th), Jugraj Singh (23rd), Hardik Singh (42nd) and Shilanand Lakra (54th) scored for India. For Malaysia, Shello Silverius pulled one back in the 14th minute. With his twin strikes, Harmanpreet also finished as the tournament’s top scorer with 12 goals.
India earned as many as 14 penalty corners against two for the Malaysians on Saturday after a slightly patchy start.
With the win, India became the second country after Pakistan to win back-to-back gold medals in Asian Games history. Harmanpreet became the first Indian captain to win two Asian Games gold medals.
For veteran Manpreet Singh, the country’s most-capped male player, it was his third Asian Games gold, the most by an Indian, after being part of the champion teams in 2014 and 2022. This was India’s fifth gold medal in the Asian Games, after 1966, 1998, 2014 and 2022.
On the cricket turf, Abhishek Sharma was the familiar nemesis at the top.
At the same time, Tilak Varma became a tormentor towards the end as India lived up to its top billing by defending the Asian Games gold medal with a 19-run win over bitter foes Pakistan.
The pitch was tricky but eased later as the world’s number 1 T20I batter Abhishek smashed 61 off 28 balls, with seven sixes, and vice-captain Tilak silenced his critics with a top-notch unbeaten 51 off 22 balls.
India posted a mammoth 211 for 6 in 20 overs before an unheralded Hasan Nawaz (96 off 51 balls) gave everything he had to make a match of it. But Pakistan were stopped at 192 for 6 in the end.
India thus extended their dominance over the arch-rivals and kept the head-to-head since the start of the 2024 T20 World Cup at 6-0.
Earlier in the day, Pranavi Urs became the first Indian to clinch a gold medal in the women’s individual event. Kumkum Mohod etched her name into the record books with a historic gold in the Women’s Recurve Individual archery event, becoming India’s first-ever champion in the discipline.
Grappler Aman Sehrawat pinned down his North Korean opponent in the 57 kg freestyle wrestling event to win the gold medal.
Our sportspersons’ performance is all the more noteworthy, as the Asian Games are rated the toughest and most competitive after the Summer Olympics.
