Ojas Deotale’s youthful energy blended seamlessly with Jyothi Surekha Vennam’s skills, securing India’s maiden gold medal in the compound mixed team event and contributing to their best-ever show in archery at the Asian Games, here on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old reigning world champion Deotale dropped a point but a flawless Jyothi made up for it, shooting all perfect scores from her eight arrows to down the second-seeded South Korean pair So Chaewon and Joo Jaehoon 159-158.
With this, the Indian archers are set to win at least four medals from the ongoing Games, which will better their previous best show at Incheon in 2014 when they bagged a men’s team compound gold, one silver and a bronze.
India, however, suffered a heartbreak in the recurve mixed pair event, with Atanu Das and Ankita Bhakat squandering a 4-2 lead to fall short in the shoot-off against Indonesia to be eliminated in the quarter finals.
The Indian duo lost to Riau Ega Agata Salsabilla and Diananda Choirunisa 4-5.
Sunil shines
Wrestler Sunil Kumar won India’s first Greco-Roman medal at the Asian Games in 13 years, bagging a bronze in the 87kg category even as three of his compatriots exited the tournament.
Up against Kyrgyzstan’s Atabek Azisbekov, the Indian wrestler fought a strategic bout in which twice he defended well from ‘par terre’ position, denying his opponent a scoring opportunity from the ground position for a 2-1 win.
The other Indians in contention — Gyanender (60kg), Neeraj (67kg) and Vikas (77kg) — could not even win a single round.
Mixed day
Kidambi Srikanth bowed out but top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came up with a smashing performance to enter the quarter finals as India had a mixed day in office in badminton.
In a contest that lasted a marathon 84 minutes, Satwik and Chirag prevailed 24-22, 16-21, 21-12 against the Indonesian duo of Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin.
PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy also sailed into the quarter finals of the women’s and men’s singles events, respectively, with straight game wins.
Ghosal on course
India’s Saurav Ghosal outclassed Henry Leung of Hong Kong in the men’s singles semi-finals to remain firmly on course for a second gold medal.
The world No. 19 was far too good for the 52-ranked Henry and completed a dominating 11-2, 11-2, 11-6 victory in 33 minutes.
