India golfer Aditi Ashok was in contention for a medal after carding a flawless five-under 66 in the second round of the women’s competition at the ongoing Games here on Thursday.
The 23-year-old rolled in five birdies, which included three in her last four holes, to lie tied second on nine-under 133 with Danish duo Nanna Koerstz Madsen (64) and Emily Kristine Pedersen (63).
Aditi, playing her second Olympics with her mother, Maheshwari, as her caddie, trails the leader — world No.1 Nelly Korda of the US — by four shots.
Korda flirted with the magical 59 after nine birdies and an eagle heading up the 18th. She needed one more birdie to join Annika Sorenstam in the record books on 59, 20 years after the Swedish great’s groundbreaking day in Phoenix, but instead she stumbled with a double-bogey six to finish on nine-under-par.
Diksha Dagar returned a 72 to share the 53rd place on six-over 148.
Aditi kept herself in prime position of delivering a first-ever medal in golf for India with birdies on holes 2, 5, 15, 17 and 18.
“The last three holes I had a couple shots that were just a good number for me and I hadn’t really had any short approaches all day, maybe just a couple,” said Aditi.
With the competition faced with the possibility of being reduced to 54 holes due to impending thunderstorms over the weekend, the slightly-built Indian knows she needs to keep firing at the flags to ensure a podium finish.
20km walk
National record holder Sandeep Kumar was going strong at second position till near the halfway mark in the men’s 20km race walk but he faded later on to finish 23rd with a below-par timing. The 35-year-old Kumar crossed the finish line in 1 hour 25 minutes and 7 seconds. His compatriots Rahul Rohilla (1:32:06) and KT Irfan (1:34:41) finished 47th and 51st, respectively.
