Incheon: Discus thrower Seema Punia and the mixed doubles tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Saketh Myneni brought home the gold medals for India as seven medals came in on what was an impressive Monday for India at the 17th Asian Games.
Myneni teamed up with Sanam Singh to win the silver in the men’s doubles while wrestler Bajrang bagged the second silver of the day in the men’s freestyle 61kg. Middle-distance runners O.P.Jaisha, Naveen Kumar, wrestler Narsingh Pancham Yadav won the bronze medals.
With a total of 42 medals, including six gold medals, India are now ninth in the medals tally, which is dominated by China, who are in lead with a total of 238 medals, including 112 golds. Hosts South Korea (146) and Japan (132) are second and third respectively.
Seema gave the first gold medal from the track and field event while the day, which rather started slow, ended on a golden note as Myneni completed a memorable Asian Games campaign for the country bagging two medals — a mixed doubles gold – partnering Sania – after winning the men’s doubles silver with Sanam — at the Yeorumul Tennis Courts.
Seema, a silver medallist in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, hurled the metal disc to 61.03 metres in her fourth attempt to win the gold medal while her team mate Krishna Poonia, bronze medallist in 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, finished fourth with a below par 55.57m. Chinese Xiaoxin Lu (59.35m) and Jian Tan (59.03m) picked up the silver and bronze, respectively.
Naveen won the bronze medal in the men’s 3000m steeplechase with a personal best timing of 8:40.39 secs. The gold went to Qatar’s Abubaker Ali Kamal with a timing of 8:28.72 secs while Bahrain’s Tareq Mubarak Salem Taher took the silver clocking 8:39.62 secs.
Jaisha won the bronze medal in the women’s 1,500 metres. The Indian finished third in four minutes 13.46 seconds. Bahrain claimed the gold and silver medals, with Maryam Yusuf Isa Jamal finishing first in 4 min 09.90 secs followed by Belete Gebregeiorges (4 min 11.03 secs).
In tennis, Sania and Myneni, seeded second, defeated top seeded Chinese Taipei duo of Hsien Yin Peng and Hao Ching Chan in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) in 44 minutes.
The Indian pair started positively and broke their opponents in the fourth game to win the first set 6-4. They carried forward the momentum and broke in the first game of the second set to intensify the pressure. They went ahead 4-3 and secured the match, winning the next two games.
It was Sania’s third consecutive Games mixed doubles final appearance, having won gold in 2006 with Leander Paes and silver with Vishnu Vardhan in 2010.
Earlier in the day, the men’s doubles team of Sanam and Saketh won silver, losing their gold medal match to South Korea’s Yongkyu Lim and Hyeon Chung 5-7, 6-7 (2-7) in one hour and 29 minutes.
The fifth-seeded Indian pair fought valiantly, matching their opponents in every shot. But inexperience proved to be their bane, losing the crucial points to concede defeat. The Indians started the match dominantly, not allowing their opponents any loose points. They held on to their serves and pushed the match to 5-5, but lost composure at the most crucial juncture, conceding a service break to hand over the first set 5-7 in 40 minutes.
It was always going to be difficult for the Indians to make a comeback into the match after losing the first set but they managed to do that impressively. They soaked all pressure to force a tie-breaker, but ran out of steam at the crucial moment, allowing the hosts to get a substantial lead, eventually succumbing 6-7 in 49 minutes.
Wrestler Bajrang had to remain content with the silver medal after losing his final bout while his compatriot Yadav clinched the bronze.
Bajrang lost the men’s freestyle 61kg final 1-3 to Iranian Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari and settled for the silver medal.
After a short while, Bajrang’s compatriot, Yadav won the bronze medal in the freestyle 74kg beating Japan’s Daisuke Shimada in a play-off match.
Yadav was trailing his opponent 1-2 after the first period. The second period turned out to be an interesting battle that saw the Indian make a come-from-behind victory. The Indian grappler lost a challenge in the second round giving Shimada a total of four points that also helped the Japanese open a 7-5 lead.
However, Yadav was in no mood to give up and quickly drew parity at 7-7 and stretch the bout to additional 35 seconds and pulled it off in style winning 10-7. Yadav was declared the winner 3-1 on the basis of classification points.
The Indian women’s hockey team failed to enter the final, going down 1-3 to hosts South Korea in a semi-final match at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium here Monday.
China, who defeated Japan 1-0 in the first semi-final, will play the hosts in the gold medal round while India face Japan in the bronze medal match Wednesday.
