Asian Games
Asian Games Day 1: Mixed day for India with five medals, couple of misses
India won five medals on the first day of the Asian Games 2023 while fencer Tanishka Khatri and swimmer Srihari Nataraj endured a heartbreak.
Srihari Nataraj and Taniksha Khatri
The Indian contingent had a mixed day on day one of the Asian Games 2023 as the shooters and rowers returned with five medals while India suffered heartbreak in fencing and table tennis.
The experienced trio of Mehuli Ghosh, Ramita Jindal, and Ashi Chouksey scored a combined 1886.0 and finished in the second spot behind hosts China. China broke the Asian record with 1896.6 points.
READ: Meet Ramita Jindal: India's first medalist at Asian Games 2023
Later in the day, Ramita Jindal won a bronze medal in the eight-women finals of the 10m air rifle.
The Indian rowing team performed admirably on Sunday early morning to win two silver and one bronze medal across different categories. The pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh started the day with a silver medal in the men's lightweight doubles sculls event.
India's second medal in rowing came as the Indian pair of Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram finished with a bronze medal in the coxless pair event.
After the first two medals, the Indian coxed-eight team ( Neeraj, Nareskh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Puneet Kumar and Ashish) fought a grueling race against China to win the silver medal with a time of 5:43.01s
Heartbreak in Fencing, Swimming
Indian fencer Tanishka Khatri lost out on a historic medal in fencing after going down against world No. 2 Man Wai Vivian Kong of Hong Kong 7-15 in the individual epee quarterfinal.
Khatri, who won her three pool matches to qualify for the knockout round, had seven touches but her opponent was superior and sealed the issue to make the semifinals.
A quarterfinal win would have guaranteed at least a bronze medal for the Indian who out-performed her teammate Ena Arora by just four points (15-11) in the round of 32.
In 100m backstroke swimming, Srihari Nataraj finished sixth in the final with a timing of 54.48 which is .96 seconds less than the bronze medal timing of 53.54.
He earlier qualified with a timing of 54.71s to finish second in his heat and fifth overall to progress to the final.
