On day 2 of the Hangzhou Asian Games, India won two gold medals and four bronze medals. China continued to dominate the medal table with 39 gold.

India on Day 2

Indian Shooters Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar won India’s first gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games by shattering the world record in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle Team final.The trio notched together a total of 1893.7 points to lead the table.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar also won bronze in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle final. He edged past Rudrankksh Patil to win the bronze medal with a score of 229.8. Vijayveer Sidhu, Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala bagged bronze in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team event with a score of 1718. 

The second gold for India came in Women’s Cricket as India defeated Sri Lanka by 19 runs. This was India’s maiden appearance in the Asian Games, after declining to send teams on the two previous occasions the sport was included in the Games.

Meanwhile, the Indian Rowing team of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish won bronze in Coxless Four event with a timing of 06:10:81. India clinched another Rowing bronze in Men’s Quadruple Sculls. The team of Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Sukhmeet and Jakar Khan secured the third position with a timing of 06:08:61.

Highlights of Day 2

Hosts China continued to dominate the Games by securing 19 gold medals on on Day 2. The Chinese rowers won 5 gold medals on the concluding day of the Rowing events. 36-year old, Zhang Liang, the veteran rower from China, retained his single sculls title. With his double sculls gold that he had won the previous day, his total Asian Games titles went up to 5 across 4 editions. In total, China won 11 out of the 14 gold medals in Asian Games Rowing.

Republic of Korea’s sprinter Ji Yuchan brought China’s golden run in the pool to an end on Day 2 as he won gold in the Men’s 50m Freestyle with a new Asian Games record of 21.72 seconds. Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong also set a new Asian Games record in the Women’s 200m Freestyle. She finished the race with a time of 1:54.12 seconds. 

48-year-old Uzbek gymnast, Oksana Chusovitina performed in front of a packed stadium chanting “Qiu Ma”, which translates to “Mother Chusovitina”. Chusovitina have won eight Asian Games medals, including two golds in 2002. “It is the love and support of the people that keep me going and give me the strength to achieve more,” Chusovitina said.

Medal Table as on 25 September