Asian Games 2023: India win historic equestrian gold, make their mark in sailing on Day 3 at Hangzhou

Team India added a third gold to their medal collection on Day 3 of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Tuesday by winning the equestrian team dressage event. India thus ended a 41-year wait for a second Asian Games gold medal in the sport, with the gold also their first in the team dressage category. Besides the gold medal in eventing, the Indian contingent also opened its account in sailing with a silver and two bronze medals, taking their medal tally to 15 at the end of Day 3.

INDIAN EQUESTRIAN DRESSAGE TEAM WIN GOLD MEDAL AT THE 19TH ASIAN GAMES

In equestrian events after 41 years India has achieved a gold medal at the Asian Games.

Fantastic! You have brought the nation immense pride and joy with this victory. pic.twitter.com/vrPnr4u7hH

— Equestrian Federation Of India (@Efi_India) September 26, 2023

The quartet of Hriday Chheda, Divyakriti Singh, Anush Agarwalla and Sudipti Hajela won the event with 209.205 percentage points, defeating favourites China who finished with 204.882 percentage points to their name. Hong Kong collected bronze with a score of 204.852 percentage points. Raghubir Singh had won gold in the individual eventing and team eventing categories on equestrian’s debut in the 1982 Asian Games. He would go on to win bronze in team dressage four years later in the Seoul Asian Games. Neha Thakur won India’s first medal on Tuesday by finishing second in the girl’s dinghy ILCA-4 event. Eabad Ali and Vishnu Saravanan later won bronze in men’s windsurfer RS:X and the men’s dinghy – ILCA7 events respectively. Among the highest points of the day’s events for the Indian contingent was the Harmanpreet Singh-led men’s hockey side thrashing Singapore 16-1. The Indians ended up scoring 16 goals for a second match in a row at Hangzhou after kickstarting their campaign with a 16-0 win over Uzbekistan on Sunday. Harmanpreet Singh led the show with converting penalty corners (24th, 39th, 40th, 42nd all PCs), while Mandeep Singh (12th, 30th, 51st) struck a hattrick. Abhishek (51st, 52nd) and Varun Kumar (two PCs in 55th) struck two each, while Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (16th), Gurjant Singh (22nd), Vivek Sagar Prasad (23rd), Manpreet Singh (37th), Shamsher Singh (38th) completed the rout of Singapore, who are 46 notches below the world No 3 Indians. India also enjoyed a good day in office as far as  racquet sports were concerned. Sumit Nagal and Ankita Raina won their respective singles encounters and Raina would later combine with Yuki Bhambri to outplay Pakistan in the mixed doubles event. Counter-puncher Nagal blunted the challenge of big-serving Beibit Zhukayev with his perseverance while Raina outgunned Adithya P Karunaratne without fuss as the two Indians inched closer to singles medals by reaching the quarter-finals of the men’s and women’s singles events respectively. However, the singles challenge of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Rutuja Bhosale came to a halt at the Asian Games. Both players however, are still in contention in doubles competitions. As for squash, India would blank Pakistan, Singapore as well as Qatar in a single day. The women’s team comprising 15-year-old Anahat Singh, veteran Joshna Chinappa and Tanvi Khanna blanked Pakistan 3-0 in its opening Pool B match, while the men’s side defeated Singapore and Qatar with an identical 3-0 margin. Bhavani Devi bows out; Men’s 4x100m medley team sets new national record Among the biggest disappointments for the Indian contingent on Tuesday was star Indian fencer Bhavani Devi’s impressive run at the Asian Games coming to an end in the quarter-finals. Bhavani suffered a 7-15 loss to local favourite Yaqi Shao in the women’s sabre individual category for her run at Hangzhou to come to an end. One win shy from a maiden Asian Games medal, Bhavani managed three touches in the first period of the quarter-finals. But her Chinese opponent was superior as she took an 8-3 lead and needed just seven more touches to qualify for her successive semi-final at the continental showpiece. Bhavani managed four more touches in the second period but that proved to be insufficient. Meanwhile, the Indian men’s 4x100m medley relay team obliterated the national record for the second time in the day but it was not enough to grab a medal as it finished fifth. The quartet of Srihari Nataraj, Likhith Selvaraj, Sajan Prakash and Tanish George Mathew bettered the 3:40.84 timing set earlier in heat 1 in the day, clocking 3:40.20 in the final.

New Record Alert🚨

Team 🇮🇳 comprising of @swim_sajan, Likith Prema, Tanish George Mathew & #TOPScheme Athlete @srihari3529 finished 5⃣th in Men's 4X400 Medley Event setting new Best India Time

Great effort by our team as they clocked 3.40.20 to create the new record 🥳

Well… pic.twitter.com/KEifsh9tUj

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) September 26, 2023

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China won the gold with a Asian record timing of 3:27.01, while the silver and bronze went to Korea (3:32.05) and Japan (3:32.52) respectively. In Wushu, the campaigns of Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh and Suraj Yadav came to an end with contrasting defeats. Surya, 27, couldn’t add another medal to the bronze that he had won at the 2018 edition, going down 0-2 to Korea’s Kim Minsoo in the 60kg category. The Indian had beaten Uzbekistan’s Khaydarov Islombek 2-1 in the earlier round. Later in the day, Suraj was knocked out by Afghanistan’s Khalid M Hotak in the 70kg quarter-final. The first round was competitive with Hotak edging the Indian 3-2. However, the Afghani produced a brutal kick which landed on Suraj’s head, leaving him on the floor and ending the contest as the Indian needed assistance to get up. Suraj had received a bye in the opening round. With inputs from PTI