With gold in Squash and Tennis, India won five medals on day 7 of the Hangzhou Asian Games. Historic gold medals await in Table Tennis and Badminton.

India on Day 7

On day 7, Sarabjot Singh and Divya Thadigol opened the medal count with 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team silver. it was India’s 19th medal in Shooting at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the best-ever Shooting haul in the Asian Games.

But the highlights of the day were India’s gold medal win in Tennis Mixed Doubles and Squash Men’s Team events. Veteran Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale defeated Chinese Taipei’s Tsung-hao-Huang and En-shuo Liang 2-6, 6-3, 10-4 in the final of the Tennis Mixed Doubles. While Rohan Bopanna added to his gold medal from Jakarta 2018, for Rutuja, this was her maiden Asian Games medal.

The only Asian Games gold medal that India won in Squash was in 2014 at Incheon. In this edition, Saurav Ghosal, Abhay Singh and Mahesh Mangaonkar triumphed over arch-rivals Pakistan to win the gold in Men’s team event. Mangaonkar lost the opening match to Nasir Iqbal in straight games. However, Saurav Ghosal brought India back into the tie with a 11-5 11-1 and 11-3 win against Muhammad Asim Khan. But the the last encounter between India’s Abhay Singh and Pakistan’s Noor Zaman was the best one. It was a seesaw match until Abhay won four consecutive point in the final game to win the tie. 

The second India vs Pakistan clash was in Men’s Hockey where India had an emphatic 10-2 victory against their arch rival.

Meanwhile, in Athletics, Karthik Kumar won silver and Gulveer Singh settled for bronze in the Men’s 10,000m race. Long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin alongside hurdler Jyothi Yarraji also advanced to the finals in their respective events.

The Indian Badminton Men’s team beat the Republic of Korea to set up its first-ever gold medal match. Another historic moment for India came in Table Tennis when Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee shocked world champion Chinese pair Chen Meng and Yidi Wang. They became the first Indian Women’s Doubles Table Tennis pair to secure a medal at the Asian Games.

Highlights of Day 7

Chinese sprinter Ge Manqi claimed the Women’s 100m title at the Hangzhou Asian Games on day 7. Ge clocked a winning time of 11.23 seconds. Veronica Shanti Pereira became Singapore’s first Asian Games medallist in Athletics since 1974 by winning the silver with 0.04 seconds. Hajar Saad Saeed Saad Alkhaldi of Bahrain took the bronze in 11.35. 

Chinese sprinter Xie Zhenye won the Men’s 100 metres in 9.97 seconds. Boonson Puripol of Thailand took the silver in 10.02, while Muhammad Azeem Bin Mohd Fahmi of Malaysia rounded out the podium in 10.11.

Ri Song Gum and Kang Hyong Yong of North Korea swept the gold medals with respective world records in the women’s 49-kg and 55-kg divisions.

Uzbekistan took hat-trick title in Kurash. In the Men’s +90kg final, four-time world champion Mukhsin Khisomiddinov defeated Turkmenistan’s Tejen Tejenov 5-0 for the gold. Artyom Shturbabin defeated Iran’s Majid Vahid Barimanlou 8-0 to take gold in the Men’s 66kg. In the Women’s 52kg final, Khilola Ortikboeva defeated compatriot Sitora Elmurodova 10-0 to take the gold.

Medal Table as on September 30