Firstpost Spodcast Episode 28: India grab 3 silvers in athletics; Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu assure medal, and more on our daily podcast
India's silver day in athletics, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu's quarterfinal wins — we discuss all this and more on Spodcast, Firspost's daily sports podcast.
Welcome to Spodcast, the sports update on Firstpost. We are covering the 2018 Asian Games on Spodcast, and it was a good weekend for Indian athletes.
Sprinter Dutee Chand broke a 20-year drought in the 100m dash for India at the Asian Games after she won silver in the event. India‘s last medal in this event was in 1998 when Rachita Mistry won a bronze. Dutee finished with a time of 11.32 seconds, a bit below her national record of 11.29 seconds. The gold went to Bahrain’s Odiong Edidiong, who clocked 11.30 seconds. China’s Wei Yongli finished third in 11.33 seconds.
Meanwhile, Hima Das won the silver in the women’s 400m event at the Asian Games. Muhammed Anas too won a silver in the men’s 400m event.
Hima finished the race in 50.59 seconds, taking second place behind Bahrain's Salwa Naser who set a new Games record of 50.09 seconds.
In the men’s 400m event, Muhammed Anas, the Asian champion, also won a silver. He finished in 45.69 seconds.
There was some bad news from the men’s 10,000m event. Long distance runner Govindan Lakshmanan finished third in the race, clocking 29:44.91. But he was later disqualified under the IAAF’s lane infringement rules.
India also won two silver medals in the equestrian events at the Asian Games. Fouaad Mirza bagged a silver medal in individual eventing with a score of 26.40. Mirza also joined Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik and Jitender Singh to bag a silver for India in team eventing.
Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are both through to the semifinals in the singles event. Sindhu beat Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand 21-11 16-21 21-14 in her quarterfinal match while Saina defeated world number five Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-18 21-16.
Sindhu will face Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semifinal while Saina squares off against Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei. If Saina and Sindhu win their respective semifinals, we could see the two Indian players face off for the gold.