Asian Games: India strikes gold in archery, shooting as hockey, boxing delivers big results

India enjoyed another packed medal day at the Asian Games on Wednesday, winning four gold medals across archery and shooting while also adding boxing and wrestling bronzes and reaching the women’s hockey final.

India swept all three compound archery team golds. Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep and Chikitha Taniparthi defended the women’s team title with a 238-234 win over China. Chikitha and Sahil Jadhav then won mixed team gold after a shoot-off against South Korea, while Kushal Dalal, Ganesh Thirumuru and Sahil Jadhav beat China 238-237 in the men’s team final.

Neeru Dhanda and Kynan Chenai added gold in the mixed team trap with 34 hits, giving India their second trap gold of the Games after Dhanda’s individual triumph on Tuesday.

In boxing, Lovlina Borgohain reached the women’s 75kg final with a 3-2 win over Kazakhstan’s Natalya Bogdanova and will face China’s Ziyi Bao for gold. Priya Ghanghas and Kapil Pokhariya lost their semifinals and took bronze.

Both Indian squash teams reached the semifinals. The women beat Singapore 2-0 through Tanvi Khanna and Anahat Singh, while the men defeated Kuwait 2-0, with Veer Chotrani and Abhay Singh winning their matches.

The women’s hockey team also reached the final after beating South Korea 2-0. Ishika Chaudhary and captain Salima Tete scored in the second half, setting up a gold-medal clash against China.

Sunil Kumar won his second consecutive Asian Games bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling, defeating the Philippines’ Roberts Callum Johnston 9-0 in the 87kg bronze-medal bout. Nisha Dahiya, meanwhile, exited in the women’s 68kg repechage.

In tennis, Sumit Nagal reached the men’s singles quarterfinals, while both Indian men’s doubles pairs exited in the quarterfinals. India’s mixed doubles title defence also ended in the round of 16, with Rutuja Bhosale and Yuki Bhambri losing 3-6, 4-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-wei and Tseng Chun-hsin.

Golf also produced encouraging starts, with Saptak Talwar and Pranavi Urs both shooting four-under 66s to sit third and second, respectively. 

India’s men beat Laos 2-0 in sepak takraw, while the women lost 0-2 to Vietnam. 

In sport climbing, Deepu Mallesh advanced to the men’s speed quarterfinals after finishing 11th in qualifying with a best time of 5.09 seconds. Joga Purty, meanwhile, exited the women’s speed quarterfinal after a fall, having earlier set a national record of 7.28 seconds in qualifying.

India’s day was headlined by four gold medals, two boxing bronzes, a wrestling bronze, two squash semifinal berths and the women’s hockey team’s return to the Asian Games final.