Mirabai ends Asiad jinx with silver; skeet bronzes brighten mixed day for India
Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu finally broke her Asian Games jinx with a historic silver medal, while India's shooting campaign was salvaged by bronze medals in the men's and women's skeet team events on a day of mixed fortunes for the country here on Wednesday.
Mirabai, who had been chasing an Asian Games medal since 2014, totalled 198kg (88kg+111kg) to finish second in the women's 49kg category and complete her medal collection.
The silver was India's first Asian Games weightlifting medal since Karnam Malleswari won bronze in 1998.
The 32-year-old Mirabai, who won an Olympic silver at the Tokyo Games in 2021, once again commanded the spotlight with her trademark smile and later said her "life is now complete".
India also collected bronze medals through the men's badminton team, soft tennis player Jay Meena and the men's and women's skeet teams.
Meena, who had gone medal-less in his previous two Asian Games appearances, finally found success at his third attempt, becoming the first Indian to win an Asian Games medal in soft tennis, a sport played with softer rubber balls and considerably lighter racquets than conventional lawn tennis.
At the shooting range, however, the performances of India's much-fancied women pistol shooters fell short of expectations.
Double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, Suruchi Singh and Esha Singh failed to win a medal in either the team or individual 10m air pistol events. Bhaker was the only Indian to qualify for the individual final but finished fifth.
The 24-year-old Paris Olympics bronze medallist later broke down while speaking about the emotional toll caused by the death of her childhood coach Jaspal Rana in June.
The skeet teams prevented India's shooting campaign from ending without a medal.
Raiza Dhillon, Maheshwari Chauhan and Parinaaz Dhaliwal combined for 331 to win bronze in the women's team event, finishing behind gold medallists China (357) and Kazakhstan (336).
Raiza and Parinaaz also qualified for the individual final but could not finish on the podium.
In the men's event, Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Bhavtegh Singh Gill shot a combined 346 to secure another bronze.
Anantjeet contributed 119, Mairaj 116 and Bhavtegh 111. Anantjeet also qualified for the individual final and finished fourth.
In wushu, Naorem Roshibina Devi moved into the women's 60kg final with a 2-0 victory over Indonesia's Thania Kusumaningtyas at the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall.
Roshibina will face China's Xiaoyu Zhang in the summit clash.
The 25-year-old, who won silver and bronze in the previous two editions of the Asian Games, is now assured of a third consecutive medal.
Badminton team loses to China
India's men's badminton team settled for bronze after losing 1-3 to China in the semifinals.
Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty lost their singles matches against higher-ranked opponents, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were India's only winners.
India had won silver at the 2023 Hangzhou Games, where China had also defeated them in the final.
World No. 14 Lakshya, who had played a key role in India's run to the semifinals, lost 16-21, 18-21 to world No. 6 Shi Yu Qi in the opening singles match.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag then defeated Paris Olympics silver medallists and reigning world champions Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-11, 22-20 to level the tie.
Ayush and the second doubles pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun, however, could not win their matches.
Table tennis, squash players advance
The Indian mixed doubles pairings of Harmeet Desai-Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale-Manush Shah advanced to the quarterfinals.
The seventh-seeded Chitale and Shah recorded a 3-0 win over Sri Lanka's pairing before blanking Moosa Ahmed and Aishath Nazeem of the Maldives 11-0, 11-7, 11-6 in the round of 16.
They will face Hong Kong's Doo Hoi Kim and Wong Chun Ting in the quarterfinals on Thursday, with a win assuring them of a medal.
In squash, Abhay Singh, Veer Chotrani and Tanvi Khanna entered the round of 16 with comfortable wins.
Second seed Abhay defeated Thailand's Arkaradet Arkarahirunya 11-1, 11-0, 11-2, while Chotrani beat Sri Lanka's Shamil Wakeel 11-8, 11-3, 11-3.
Tanvi defeated South Korea's Dami Kim 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 in the women's singles.
Hockey, kabaddi teams continue winning run
India's women's hockey team registered its third consecutive Pool B victory, thrashing Thailand 20-1.
Drag-flicker Deepika Sehrawat scored a record nine goals in a single match, converting all nine of her penalty-corner attempts.
She struck in the second, eighth, ninth, 24th, 33rd, 36th, 39th, 51st and 57th minutes, while Navneet Kaur also scored four goals.
India also maintained its winning momentum in kabaddi, with both the men's and women's teams recording comprehensive group-stage victories over Bangladesh and Iran respectively.
