Shooters continued to enrich India’s medal tally with the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions team of Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Suresh Kusale and Akhil Sheoran shattering a world record to clinch the gold medal before the women’s 10m Air Pistol team of Palak, Esha Singh and Divya Thadigol, and the men’s doubles tennis team added the silver lining to the campaign on Day 6 of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Palak and Esha also ensured a top-2 finish for India in the individual women’s 10m air pistol final.

The Indian women’s squash team comprising Joshana Chinappa, Tanvi Khanna, and Anahat Singh settled for bronze after losing 1-2 in the semi-final to Hong Kong.

In men’s 50m rifle 3P event, Aishwary, Swapnil and Akhil shattered the world record, previously held by the United States of America, with 1769 points en-route to the gold. China took silver while Korea bagged bronze.

Aishwary and Swapnil also made the 50m rifle three positions individual final with a joint-qualification Asian record score. However, Akhil missed out on the final due to the two players per nation rule.

In women’s 10m air pistol team event, Palak, Esha Singh and Divya Thadigol Subbaraju shot a combined score of 1731, to bag the silver. The Indian trio was merely five points short of China, who shattered the Asian Games record for the gold medal. Chinese Taipei shooters settled for bronze.

In the women’s 10m air pistol individual final, Palak took the gold with 242.1 points, while Esha bagged the silver with 239.7. Pakistan’s Talat was third with 218.2.

Tennis

The Indian men’s doubles tennis pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni lost 6-4 against Chinese Taipei’s Jason Jung and Yu-hsiou Hsu in the first set of the gold medal match at Hangzhou 2023. India took an early 2-1 lead in the final but the Chinese Taipei pair broke the serve and won the set.

In men’s doubles, India has previously won five gold medals at the Asian Games.

Also, Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale could seal bronze after winning their semi-final tie.

Athletics

India’s race walkers began the track and field competitions on a disappointing note with Vikash Singh and Priyanka Goswami coming 5th and 6th respectively in men’s, women’s 20km race walk in Hangzhou on Friday.

Vikash finished with a time of 1:27:33 to fall four minutes and 33 seconds behind China’s Jun Zhang (1:23:00) who took the gold medal. The silver and bronze went to China’s Wang Zhaozhao (1:24:08), and Japan’s Yutaro Murayama (1:24:41).

Meanwhile, Priyanka completed her 20km race walk final clocking 1:43:07. Chinese athletes secured a double podium finish in this category too. Yang Jiayu (1:30:03) bagged gold and Ma Zhenxia (1:30:04) won silver while Japan’s Nanako Fuji (1:33:49) claimed bronze.

Swimming

Advait Page qualified for the men’s 200m backstroke final with a personal best time of 2:03.01. However, Srihari Nataraj (2:07.19) failed to make the final after finishing 14th overall.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Nina Venkatesh clocked 27.80 seconds to break the national record and rank 14th overall in the women’s 50m butterfly heats.

Later in the day, reigning world champion Nikhat Zareen will look to ensure a medal and a 2024 Paris Olympic berth when she faces Hanan Nassar of Jordan in the women’s 50kg quarterfinals.

In hockey, the Indian women’s team will face Malaysia while the men’s and women’s squash teams have assured themselves of at least bronze medals and will play their semifinal ties. India’s table tennis stars like Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Suthirtha Mukherjee will be looking to remedy the lack of a medal from the contingent as the men’s doubles and singles and women’s doubles campaigns get underway.