Revision as of 16:58, 24 August 2018

Archery

Compound archery

The Indian compound archery teams qualified second in men’s, women’s and mixed categories. The World No. 1 women’s team tallied 2085 points behind Korea. The men’s team scored 2087 and finished behind Korea who topped with 2116 points.In the mixed category, Abhishek Verma and Jyoti Sureka Vennam scored 1409 points to be placed second after Korea who scored 1412.

Badminton

Knocked out in team quarterfinals

Biswajyoti Brahma, Shuttlers knocked out in team quarterfinals, August 21, 2018: The Times of India

PV Sindhu won her match but the rest faltered as the Indian shuttlers failed to put it across Japan and crashed out in the women’s team quarterfinals at the Asian Games. The Indian men’s team did no better, going down to Indonesia in the team quarterfinals later in the day.

Sindhu gave India a winning start in the first singles, beating Akane Yamaguchi in straight games in 44 minutes. The Indian, who enjoyed a 7-4 head-to-head advantage over the Japanese going into the match, was tested by her rival but she used her experience to prevail in the contest 21-18, 21-19.

India wasted the lead in the next match itself when their doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil went down tamely in the doubles 15-21, 6-21 in 34 minutes against Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.

All hopes then rested on veteran Saina Nehwal to regain India’s lead, but she failed to deliver. After losing the first game in the match against Nozomi Okuhara 11-21, Sania made a spirited comeback taking the second game 25-23. But her rival ran away with the match in 71 minutes by taking the third game 21-16.

This was Saina’s second straight loss against Okuhara, who had beaten the Indian in the World Championships last year.

Sindhu later tied up with Ashwini Ponnappa in the fourth match, but failed to do much as Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi wrapped it up 21-13, 21-12 to dash India’s hopes. “They had a strong defence and had prepared well for this match. We tried hard, but it did not work out for us,” Sindhu said.

The men’s team also faced a similar fate as they went down against Indonesia 1-3, with HS Pannoy registering the lone victory for the Indians.

The Indians were caught on the wrong foot when their No. 1 player Kidambi Srikanth was stunned by Anthony Sinsuka 21-23, 22-20, 10-21 in just over an hour. The Indians failed to recover from that setback. They lost the next match, a doubles contest, by three games.

Prannoy delayed the inevitable by winning his tie against Jonatan Christie 21-15, 19-21, 21-19 but Indonesia sealed the issue by winning the doubles match that followed.

Bridge

The team

Biswajyoti Brahma, Cancer survivor leads India’s eclectic bridge contingent, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

Sometimes listening to your doctor’s poker-faced advice is the best hand you can play. Just ask Finton Lewis.

Told to “simply waste your time” four years ago by his doctor, Lewis did just that – or probably, completely misread the message. Today, that sage advice has led to one of the most interesting stories at the Asian Games here at Jakarta.

Lewis, a retired 64-year-old school teacher from Mumbai had just recovered from colon cancer and his doctor advised him to “enjoy life to the fullest”. Not really sure what to do, the lover of mathematics turned to a deck of cards, and a sport that his brother had introduced him to nearly four decades earlier. That was it and at 64, a potential Asian Games medal winner was taking shape.

As the bridge event got underway at the Asian Games here on Tuesday, Lewis could not be blamed for concealing a quiet chuckle as he peered over his cards. “What a fantastic way to waste your time,” he must have thought.

Bridge was the Sudoku of a time before the 1990s. Till the advent of online games at the turn of the century, bridge was what your fathers played after officehours and you secretly wished you could learn, and join.

Today, Lewis and Team India are hoping to take bridge back into the mainstream here at Jakarta. A podium finish, a medal around their necks wouldn’t hurt either.

Lewis is part of an eclectic 24-strong Indian mix at Jakarta. The wife of a former union minister and a few septuagenarians are part of the group.

At 79, Rita Choksi is the oldest member of the Indian contingent, and is the ‘elder’ in a squad with an average age of well over 50. Three years Rita’s junior, 76-year-old Vasanti Shah has problem moving around, but that doesn’t deter her from giving her best in India’s bid at the Asiad.

Hema Deora, 67, is the wife of former petroleum minister Murali Deora, while among the ‘younger’ lot, the dashing Jaggy Shivdasani (60) wants to inspire youngsters to break his 42-yearold national record in the sport. 48-year-old Himani Khandelwal and husband Rajeev Khandelwal

(54) are simply happy to soak in the indescribable” feeling of representing India.

The players see the Jakarta experience as an opportunity to drive home the message that bridge is a mind sport and not just another a card game.

Most players rued the fact that India is not producing enough young bridge players unlike in countries in Europe or like China and Singapore.

“For many in India, bridge is cards and cards means gambling,” Shivdasani told TOI on Tuesday, “But in reality, it’s not so and that perception needs to change,” he said.

“There is a need to make youngsters aware of this sport and the governments should promote it,” said Hema Deora, who sponsors several teams in different bridge competitions.

Vasanti Shah said she played bridge since it helped her stay alert. “It’s a passion for me. I picked it up quite early from my father, and I can feel the difference it can make to me even at this age. It helps me stay alert.”

Lewis says he’s saddened to see limited knowledge of the game in the country. “I would love to see the game grow. Right now, the spectator interest is very low,” he lamented.

Shivdasani is the current record holder in Indian bridge, being the youngest-ever national winner at 18 years. “I was a teenager when I won the national championship. Even after 42 years, that record stands. I would love for it to be broken,” he said.

Gymnastics

‘Injured’ Dipa misses vault final

Biswajyoti Brahma, ‘Injured’ Dipa misses vault final, pulls out of team final, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

Dipa Karmakar injured her right knee, which had been operated on, while landing during a training session, in Asian Games 2018
From: Biswajyoti Brahma, ‘Injured’ Dipa misses vault final, pulls out of team final, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

But Gymnast Will Take Part In Beam Final

Dipa Karmakar, who made an appearance in a multi-discipline event for the first time in two years, has pulled out of Wednesday’s women’s team final at the Asian Games after hurting her knee. Dipa hurt her right knee, on which she had undergone surgery for an injury, while landing during a practice session ahead of her participation in the women’s qualification for team and apparatus finals.

The injury did not allow the Indian to give her all in events on August 21, 2018 and she failed to qualify for the individual final in vault. Instead, her compatriots Budda Aruna Reddy and Pranati Nayak made the grade along with the team. The Tripura girl made it to the final in the individual beam event — not her forte — and will take part in that.

Hockey

August 21, 2018: The Times of India

The Indian hockey team started its campaign at the Asian Games on Monday here with a 17-0 mauling of hosts Indonesia in a Pool A men’s hockey match as the defending champions chose the contest to test their preparedness for tougher matches. India pumped in goals at will against the hapless hosts with Dilpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Simranjeet Singh scoring three apiece. Coach Harendra Singh later said the match helped India get used to the playing conditions in the tournament. “The score does not matter in this match as it was not about how many goals we scored. It helped us to read the pitch and the conditions. We also experimented with our game through

Men

August 21, 2018: The Times of India

The Indian hockey team started its campaign at the Asian Games on Monday here with a 17-0 mauling of hosts Indonesia in a Pool A men’s hockey match as the defending champions chose the contest to test their preparedness for tougher matches.

India pumped in goals at will against the hapless hosts with Dilpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Simranjeet Singh scoring three apiece

Women

August 22, 2018: The Times of India

A ruthless Indian women's hockey team today mauled lowly Kazakhstan 21-0 to notch up their second biggest win at the Asian Games here. Goals rained thick and fast in the Pool B match at the GBK Hockey Field with as many as 10 Indians out of 18, who took the field, entering their names in the scoresheet.

The Indians scored almost at will against the hapless Kazakhstan team but the scoreline missed their all-time Asian Games record of 22-0 by a goal. The Indian women's team had beaten Hong Kong 22-0 in the 1982 Asiad. Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur, who had also scored a hat-trick in India's 8-0 thrashing of Indonesia in their opening match, top-scored again with four goals in the eighth, 36th, 44th and 52nd minutes.

Lalremsiami (9th, 19th, 29th), Navneet Kaur (11th, 12th and 49th) and Vandana Katariya (29th, 37th and 52nd) were the other three hat-trick scorers. Navjot Kaur (16th and 54th), Lilima Minz (38th and 44th), Neha Goyal (10th), Udita (34th), Deep Grace Ekka (43rd) and Monika (55th) were the other goal scorers for India in the completely lop-sided match with Kazakhstan defending all through.

India, who had won a bronze in the 2014 Asian Games, are currently ranked ninth while Kazakhstan are 34th in the latest FIH chart. India is the highest ranked team in the competition.

Kabaddi

August 22, 2018: The Times of India

The Indian men’s and women’s kabaddi teams secured emphatic wins to qualify for the semifinals of the Asian Games here on Tuesday. The men’s team, a seven-time goldmedallist, bounced back from the shock 23-24 defeat against South Korea to beat Thailand 49-30 in their fourth and final Group A match. They had beaten Bangladesh 50-21 and Sri Lanka 44-28 before losing to South Korea. In the women’s competition, India played two matches and emerged victorious in both to top Group A with an all-win record to qualify for the semifinals.

Rowing

Men’s quadruple sculls

August 20, 2018: The Times of India

Dushyant and men’s quadruple sculls team in finals:

Dushyant Chauhan and the Indian men's quadruple sculls team finished first in their respective heats to reach the finals of the rowing competition here on Monday. Dushyant clocked 7:43.08 to emerge the fastest in heat 1 and second overall behind South Korea's Hyunsu Park, who recorded 7:22.08. Starting off in lane 4, the quartet of Sawarn Singh, Dattu Baban Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh qualified comfortably for the final, clocking 6:15.18 seconds. They finished the fastest overall.

Sepak takraw

August 20, 2018: The Times of India

India were assured of a maiden Asian Games medal in sepak takraw by progressing to the semifinals with a win over Iran, here. India defeated Iran 21-16, 19-21, 21- 17 in the first match to make a winning start to their campaign. They, however, lost to Indonesia 0-3 in the second match in men’s team Regu (team competition) Preliminary Group B but advanced to the last-four stage to be guaranteed of at least a bronze.

 India secure historic bronze

August 22, 2018: The Times of India

It was a ‘victory in defeat’ for the Indian men’s sepaktakraw team which settled for its maiden Asian Games bronze medal after being beaten by a formidable Thailand in the semifinals here on Tuesday. The Indian men’s regu team lost to Thailand 0-2 but picked up a bronze as both the losing semifinalists are also awarded a medal.

Sepaktakraw, which directly translates to kick the ball, has been part of the Games program since 1990. India has participated since the 2006 edition and is slowly catching with the South East Asian countries, where the sport has a huge following. Thailand has won a whopping 22 gold medals at the Games and Myanmar is a distant second in the list with five gold.

The Indian team was training in Thailand for the past two months and that made a huge difference, according to chief coach Hem Raj. “The only way is up for these boys. The government has put us in the priority sport list and we will continue to repay their faith with good performances,” an ecstatic Raj said.

Eight of the 12 members of the squad are from Manipur and the rest from Delhi. The sport is quite popular in Manipur, primarily because of its proximity to Myanmar. “Yes, that is how the sport became so popular in Manipur. It is close to Myanmar and it has always been easy to source equipments from there. Now we use synthetic balls but back in the day, we used to get balls made of bamboo. That was the traditional way of playing the sport,” said another team official Muhindro Singh Thokchom.

Football is also popular in the Northeast and that is another reason why most India players are coming from that region, including captain Niken Singh and Alaksh Yumnam, the acrobatic striker who earlier used to play the ‘beautiful game’. “Compared to people from the other parts of India, people from Manipur pick up the sport faster. They are naturally agile and very skilful with their feet. But slowly the game is getting popular in other parts of the country too,” added Thokchom.

The men’s team is not done yet and promises another medal in regu. The women’s team failed to win a medal but they too are improving fast.

Shooting

Shooting: India

Air pistol 10m

Biswajyoti Brahma & Ishita Bhatia, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

Gold medal winner Saurabh Chaudhary (left) & bronze medallist Abhishek Verma after the 10m air pistol event at the 2018 Asian Games
From: Biswajyoti Brahma & Ishita Bhatia, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

India’s Sanjeev Rajput shows his silver medal during awards ceremony for the 50m rifle 3 position men’s shooting event in Palembang
From: Biswajyoti Brahma & Ishita Bhatia, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

Chaudhary’s gold came after a thrilling contest with a former world champion — Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsuda — who dominated the final and led all the way till the penultimate shot. After an average start in the final, during which he came up with three straight sub-10 shots, the Indian shot 10-plus scores consistently to bridge the gap between him and the leader.

Chaudhary, who began the final 1.9 points behind the Japanese, brought the difference down to just 0.4 before the final two shots.

An 8.9 at a crucial juncture by the Japanese handed the lead to the Indian who closed the contest with shots of 10.2 and 10.4. Matsuda’s 10.3 in the final shot had no impact on the outcome as the Japanese finished one point behind to take silver. London Olympic gold medallist Jin Jongoh of South Korea finished fifth.

Another Indian, 29-yearold Abhishek Verma, also a first-timer at a major event, finished third to claim bronze. Chaudhary aggregated 240.7 while Verma had a total of 219.3 in the final.

Men’s trap: silver

LAKSHAY BAGS SILVER IN MEN’S TRAP, August 21, 2018: The Times of India

Young shooter Lakshay Sheoran punched above his weight to clinch a silver in the men’s trap competition at the Asian Games here on Monday. Lakshay, who came up the junior ranks to be in his first international year as a member of the senior squad, shot down 43 targets out of 50 in the final.

The 20-year-old had managed to hit 119 out of 125 targets in the qualification round. Lakshay jointly led after 16 shots in the final, but eventually lost to Chinese Taipei’s Kunpi Yang, who equalled the world record to emerge triumphant.

 Rifle mixed team 

August 20, 2018: The Times of India

Shooters Ravi Kumar (left) and Apurvi Chandela after winning the bronze in the 10m air rifle mixed team event
From: August 20, 2018: The Times of India

India opened their account in the 18th Asian Games with a bronze medal after Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar cracked under pressure to finish third in the rifle mixed team shooting event. The Indians aggregated 429.9 after 42 shots in the 48-shot final and were in second spot for major part of the 48-shot finals before China overtook them to take the silver. The strong Chinese pairing of Ruozhu Zhao and Haoran Yang ended with a score of 492.5. Chinese Taipei’s Yingshin Lin and Shaochuan Lu claimed the gold, scoring 494.1.

It was a maiden Asian Games medal for Chandela, who will be aiming for a better colour medal in the 10m air rifle. Chandela is also a multiple time World Cup winner and had bagged gold at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. World Cup bronze medallist Kumar, who is mentored by the great Abhinav Bindra, had won a men’s 10m rifle team bronze at last the edition at Incheon.

Swimming

Men’s 50m freestyle

Virdhawal misses 50m bronze by a whisker, August 22, 2018: The Times of India

Virdhawal Khade bettered his national record but missed the bronze medal in the men’s 50m freestyle by a whisker, finishing fourth in the final at the Asian Games here on Tuesday. After finishing third fastest in overall heats, Khade was a medal contender but missed it by hundredth of a second. He clocked 22.47s while Japan’s bronze winner Shunichi Nakao timed 22.46.

China’s Hexin Yu (22.11) won gold ahead of Katsumi Nakamura

(22.20). In the morning session, 26-year-old Khade marginally bettered his own long-standing national record by clocking 22.43s which was a better effort than his 22.52s, set in August 2009 at Asian Age group swimming championships in Japan.

Khade returned to swimming only 18 months back after remaining out of action due to his job commitment with the Maharashtra government. He is posted as a Tehsildar at Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar, which manages a social welfare scheme.

Tennis

August 21, 2018: The Hindu

Ramanathan, Raina advance to pre-quarterfinals: 

Singles specialists, including second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina, made a smooth start to their campaign. Ramanathan won the first set 6-0 against Wong Hong Kit but was stretched by the Hong Kong player in the second set before getting past 7-6 (4) on tie-break in a round of 32 match. Prajnesh Gunneswaran had it easy against Indonesia Rifqi M Fitriadi, winning 6-2, 6-0 to progress to the last 16. Ankita Raina beat Beatrice Gumulya 6-2, 6-4 in a round of 32. 

Wrestling

Women’s wrestling was introduced at the Games in 2002 in Busan.

Men’s 65kg

Biswajyoti Brahma, August 21, 2018: The Times of India

Bajrang Punia, who had virtually faced no resistance in all his bouts till the final of the men’s 65kg category, was stretched till the end by Japan’s Takatani Daichi.
A list of Punia's top medals, 2013-18
From: Biswajyoti Brahma, August 21, 2018: The Times of India

Bajrang Punia , who had virtually faced no resistance in all his bouts till the final of the men’s 65kg category, was stretched till the end by Japan’s Takatani Daichi. The Indian survived some anxious moments to ultimately emerge the winner [gold].

Women’s  50kg: gold

Biswajyoti Brahma, August 21, 2018: The Times of India’'

Vinesh Phogat floors her Japanese rival in Jakarta on August 20, 2018 - Asian Games 2018
From: Biswajyoti Brahma, August 21, 2018: The Times of India

Vinesh Phogat with her historic Gold medal at Asian Games 2018
From: Biswajyoti Brahma, August 21, 2018: The Times of India

Vinesh Phogat, from the Haryanvi stable of wrestling sisters of ‘Dangal’ fame, came up with a nearperfect game to clinch a historic gold, the first in for an Indian woman in wrestling in Asian Games. She outclassed Yuki Irie of Japan 8-2 in the 50kg category final.

It turned out to be a disappointing day for other Indian wrestlers as Pinki in failed to impress 53 kg category, while Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg), Pooja Dhanda (57kg) and Sumit (125kg) lost the chance to win bronze medals through repechage.

Women’s  68kg: bronze

August 22, 2018: The Times of India

In Delhi, I was desperate to get gold, so committed mistakes. Here I knew that gold and silver were out of reach, so I fought hard for whatever was available.”- Divya Kakran
From: August 22, 2018: The Times of India

Divya Kakran shrugged off a crushing quarterfinal defeat to bag a bronze, ensuring that medals continued to come from the wrestling arena, even as three other Indians crashed out early at the Asian Games on Tuesday. Kakran was demolished by the experienced Mongolian Tumentsetseg Sharkhuu in the quarterfinals of the 68kg category but the Delhi athlete was lucky she did not have to come through a repechage to be in contention for bronze. The draw was such that she was pitted against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Wenling without playing a repechage round and won the bout in just one minute 29 seconds by technical superiority. Divya had won a bronze at the 2018 Gold Coast CWG and silver at the recently-held Asian Junior Championship in New Delhi.

Other results

Three other wrestlers could not reach the medal round. Kiran was ousted from 76kg. The Greco Roman competition started on Tuesday but India did not have anything to cheer about. Gyanender lost in the 60kg while Manish was ousted from 67kg competition. Harpreet Singh is now India’s best bet in Greco Roman.