Asian Games: Twin kabaddi golds, marathon silver highlight India’s day

India retained both Asian Games kabaddi titles as the men beat Iran 40-34 and women prevailed 37-34. Sawan Barwal won a historic marathon silver, while squash players Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh reached finals and the hockey team entered the semifinals

Nagoya: India’s kabaddi teams retained their Asian Games titles on Saturday, with the men beating Iran 40-34 and the women defeating their Iranian counterparts 37-34, while Sawan Barwal’s historic marathon silver was another highlight of a mixed day for the country.

India’s overall medal tally rose to 30, comprising four gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals.

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The men’s hockey team also advanced to the semifinals after a 2-0 win over Japan in its penultimate pool match.

The athletics campaign suffered setbacks after hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and triple jumper Praveen Chithravel were ruled out after old injuries resurfaced before their respective events.

Two-time defending champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor had to settle for silver in the men’s shot put despite a season-best throw of 20.64m. His effort was well short of his personal best of 21.77m.

Prachi Choudhary ensured India’s presence on the athletics podium by winning bronze in the women’s 400m. India did not finish in the top three in the men’s 400m and women’s 1,500m.

Barwal had earlier produced the day’s first major highlight, winning silver in the marathon and breaking his own national record.

The 28-year-old Army man from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, clocked 2:11:37 to complete the 42.195km race, finishing behind Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita, who won gold in 2:10:49. China’s Peiyou Feng took bronze in 2:12:13.

Barwal’s silver is India’s first marathon medal at the Asian Games since Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan won bronze in the 1982 edition in New Delhi.

He became the fourth Indian marathon runner to win an Asian Games medal. Chhota Singh won gold and Surat Singh Mathur bronze at the inaugural Games in 1951 in New Delhi.

In kabaddi, India’s men overcame a strong challenge from Iran to win 40-34, while the women prevailed 37-34 after a closely fought contest.

It was the men’s ninth Asian Games gold in the sport and the women’s fourth.

At the shooting range, Tilottama Sen, Visarsa Vinod and Ashi Chouksey won silver in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions team event.

The Indian trio aggregated 1,763 points to finish second behind China, which won gold with a Games-record 1,773. Kazakhstan took bronze with 1,754.

Tilottama and Visarsa also qualified for the individual final but missed out on medals, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Squash players eye gold

Teenager Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh advanced to the women’s and men’s singles finals respectively, keeping India in contention for two more gold medals.

Anahat, the reigning world junior champion, stunned world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe of Japan 3-2 in the semifinal.

The 18-year-old Indian fought back after trailing 0-2 to win 9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3.

Abhay then defeated Pakistan’s Muhammad Irfan 3-0 (11-3, 12-10, 11-6) to reach the men’s singles final.

The two finalists can also secure qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if they win their respective finals, with squash set to make its Olympic debut at the Games.

Earlier, Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar won bronze after losing 2-1 (11-10, 2-11, 11-10) to Hong Kong’s Tang Ming Hong and Lee Ka Yi in the mixed doubles event at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena.

Strong start by archers

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Chikitha Taniparthi topped the men’s recurve and women’s compound individual qualification respectively as India made a strong start to the archery competition.

India also secured the top spot in the compound mixed team qualification.

Fresh from winning the World Cup Final, Dhiraj scored 698 points to set a new Asian Games qualification record. His effort also helped India secure second place in the men’s recurve team and recurve mixed team seedings.

Chikitha topped the women’s compound qualification with 705 points, helping India finish second in the women’s compound team event. The men’s compound team finished third, led by Sahil Jadhav’s fifth-place individual finish.

Mixed day for shuttlers

Unnati Hooda advanced to the women’s singles quarterfinals with two wins, while Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty were eliminated.

Unnati defeated Malaysia’s Ling Ching Wong 21-14, 20-22, 21-19 before producing a 21-19, 21-13 win over world No. 6 Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani.

The 19-year-old from Haryana will face Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals.

Women’s doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Japan’s world No. 3 pair Mayu Matsumoto and Yuki Fukushima 24-22, 21-18.

TT campaign ends

Manush Shah and Yashaswini Ghorpade lost their respective men’s and women’s singles pre-quarterfinals, bringing India’s table tennis campaign to an end.

India finished with one medal in the sport — the mixed doubles bronze won by Manush Shah and Diya Chitale on Friday.

India also could not make significant progress in esports, fencing or canoeing.