Indian Athletes shine in the opening two-days at the Asian Games

The Indian contingent has made a terrific start to the Asian Games 2018 campaign. While Bajrang Punia made the country proud by clinching gold medal in Men 65 kg wrestling on Sunday; Vinesh Phogat added another feather to the country’s glory by becoming the first woman to bag gold at Asian Games on Day 2.

India bagged a total of 57 medals in the last edition of Asian Games at Incheon in 2014 including 11 gold medals but they will be looking to surpass these number with impressive openings in multiple disciplines at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta this time. Apart from gold medals from Vinesh and Bajrang, Lakshya Sheoran and Deepak Kumar won silver medals in Air Rifle and Trap Shooting events respectively. Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela also won bronze in the 10-meter Air Rifle mixed team event taking the overall medal tally to five at the end of Day 2.

The highlight of the day was the historic performance from Vinesh Phogat who wrote her names in the history books. Vinesh, who is the niece of famed Mahavir Phogat defeated Yuki of Japan, 6-2. Life must have come a full circle for the champion who experienced a terrible injury before the 2016 Olympics and the murder of her father. Vinesh had also bagged gold at the 21st Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2014 Asian Games.

India will be looking to continue their fine run in a number of events on Day 3 onwards. Women Kabaddi team continued their fine run winning the third consecutive group match, defeating Sri Lanka 38-12 to retain top of the group. The men’s team though, suffered a minor setback in a nail-biting match against South Korea, losing 23-24. The loss however, dd not affect the standings as they continue to remain the leader in Group A. The men’s and women’s team will face Thailand and Indonesia on Day 3 respectively.

The Tennis Team also had a successful day with Paresh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan reaching the men’s pre-quarter finals. Ram Kumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagpal along with Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan also made it to the men’s double pre-quarter finals.

The women’s contingent also had a bright beginning with Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi making it to the pre-quarter finals of singles while Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare booked their places in the pre-quarter too. Both the mixed doubles team including Divij Sharan and Karman Kaur Thandi, and, Rohan Bopanna and Ankita Raina booked their places in the pre-quarters.

India would we hopeful of medals from the Tennis team who have not lost a single set in the tournament this far apart from the women’s doubles loss of Pranjala Yadlapalli and Rutuja Bhosale until now.

The men’s Handball team also won their opening game of the Classification Group against Malaysia, 45 – 19. They’ll face Pakistan in their next game on August 24. The men’s Volleyball team also had a successful outing in their Pool F match against Hong Kong, emerging 3-0 victorious. Dushyant Singh reached the finals of Rowing after finishing first in his heats with the timing of 7:43:08. Medals would also be expected out of the Martial Arts – Wushu team with four athletes making it to the quarter finals in different weight categories. Santosh Kumar, Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh, Narendar Grewal and Pardeep Kumar made it to the last eight in 56, 60, 65 and 7 kilograms categories respectively.

India have already created history in the opening two-days at the Asian Games and would be hoping to do so many times in the coming days. We are yet to open our accounts in a number of disciplines & hope that we excel in all of them. As every fan continues to be glued to the screen for the next ten days, we wish the Indian Contingent all the very best for their events. They are already making all of us proud by representing the nation at the highest level.