Three shooting medals lift India’s tally to six at Asian Games

India’s wait for Asian Games gold continued as shooters added two silver and a bronze to take the overall tally to six medals. Suchika Tariyal won a historic MMA bronze, while hockey, badminton and table tennis teams advanced impressively

Nagoya: Gold eluded India but medals continued to flow from the shooting range for the second successive day, while the country’s first-ever Asian Games medal in mixed martial arts became more a tale of heartbreak than history here on Monday.

Suchika Tariyal wept on the mat after being denied a place in the final when her 700-gram weight disadvantage against Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo proved decisive following a fiercely contested semifinal that ended in a draw. She had to settle for bronze, India’s first-ever medal in the combat sport.

---

The Indian’s slightly higher weight proved decisive as technical rules allowed the lighter competitor to advance in case of a draw.

India’s overall tally stood at six medals — four silver and two bronze — as the wait for a gold continued.

The focus of the action, however, was the shooting range, where three medals — two silver and a bronze — were added to India’s tally.

Youngsters Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil held their nerve in a gripping shootout to win individual silver and bronze medals respectively in the men’s 10m air rifle after combining with teenager Parth Mane to secure a team silver.

The three medals took India’s shooting tally to five — four silver and a bronze — but once again gold remained out of reach as China set the benchmark, with world No. 1 Sheng Lihao producing a commanding performance.

Sheng, Changhong Zhang and Sihan Ma amassed 1,899.0 points to improve their own world record of 1,898.4 set in Cairo last year and claim gold.

The men’s team silver placed the spotlight on 18-year-old former junior world champion Parth Mane and 21-year-old Himanshu Dhillon, who is still finding his feet on the senior circuit, where the scores, pressure and competition demand an entirely different level of consistency.

Suchika’s heartbreak

Suchika etched her name in the history books as India’s first-ever Asian Games medallist in MMA in the women’s 60kg category. But far from celebrating, she was left in tears, mourning the medal she could have won had she made the final.

Hailing from Kiloi village in Haryana’s Rohtak district, the 36-year-old Suchika’s career has been defined by remarkable adaptability. She is a 2024 world champion in jiu-jitsu and represented India in judo at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and in kurash at the 2022 Asian Games.

On Monday, she fought her heart out, only to be denied by technicalities. Thankfully, her semifinal defeat came after she had already assured herself of a medal, and she acknowledged how much the achievement meant to her after regaining her composure.

“This is more than my life. I will never forget that I came to Japan and got a medal for my country. I can now happily die,” she later told PTI.

The bright spots

There was plenty to celebrate for India following strong performances in badminton, hockey and table tennis. The kabaddi teams also got off to winning starts.

The women’s hockey team romped to a 17-1 win over Indonesia, continuing its confident march that could also earn it a ticket to the 2028 Olympic Games, provided it wins gold.

On the badminton court, the men’s team sailed into the quarterfinals, outplaying Bangladesh 3-0 after Lakshya Sen, K Srikanth and Ayush Shetty secured comfortable singles wins, leading to the cancellation of the doubles matches in the five-match tie.

A similarly assured start came in the boxing ring, with Sumit Kundu (70kg) winning comfortably.

India’s women’s and men’s table tennis teams also advanced to the quarterfinals following identical 3-0 wins over their respective Pakistani opponents.

The women’s team swept aside Pakistan 3-0 in a one-sided tie to top Group F with its third win in a row, while the men’s team also bounced back with a 3-0 victory.

Swimmers disappoint

The swimming campaign, however, continued to falter.

Srihari Nataraj finished a disappointing 10th in the men’s 50m backstroke final at the Asian Games as Indian swimmers endured another forgettable day, with most of them failing to progress beyond the heats.

Nataraj, a two-time Olympian, clocked 25.52 seconds to finish last in the final, slower than his 25.37-second effort in the heats earlier in the day.

There was disappointment in soft tennis as well, with Aadhya Tiwari and Jay Meena’s promising mixed doubles campaign ending in the round of 16 after a hard-fought 2-5 loss to the Philippines’ Christy Sanosa and Sherwin Ray Nuguit.

The Indian pair went down 4-2, 2-4, 2-4, 3-5, 2-4, 5-3, 6-8.