B Shrikant
Hangzhou, Oct 2 (IANS) The Indian women’s doubles pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee claimed a historic bronze medal in table tennis while Parul Choudhary, SA Ancy won silver medals in athletics as India added seven more medals to their overall tally to 60 medals on the ninth day of competitions in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Monday.
The bronze medal picked by Ayhika and Sutirtha is the only won by India in the 19th Asian Games and overall, the third bronze medal bagged by the country in table tennis in Asian Games adding to the team bronze in 2018 in Jakarta and bronze in mixed doubles won by Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra in 2018.
The bronze medal picked by Ayhika and Sutirtha is the only won by India in the 19th Asian Games and overall, the third bronze medal bagged by the country in table tennis in Asian Games adding to the team bronze in 2018 in Jakarta and bronze in mixed doubles won by Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra in 2018.
India won two bronze medals in roller skating with the Indian team of Sanjana Bathula, Karthika Jagadeeswaran, Heeral Sadhu and Aaralhy Kasturirajan finishing third behind Chinese Taipei and Korea in the Women’s Speed Skating 3000m relay race. The Indians completed the race in 4:34.861.
The Indian team of Aryanpal Singh Ghuman, Anandhkumar Velkumar, Siddhant Rahul Kamble and Vikram Rajendra Ingale won the bronze medal in the Men’s Speed Skating 3000m relay race final. India completed the race in 4:10.126 to finish behind Chinese Taipei and Republic of Korea.
The seven medals bagged on Monday took India’s tally to 60 medals — 13 gold, 24 silver and 23 bronze medals, which helped them maintain their fourth position on the table.
On Monday, Ayhika and Sutirtha put up a brave fight but went down to North Korea’s Suyong Cha and Sugyong Pak losing the second semifinal 3-4 to claim the bronze medal in women’s doubles table tennis at the Asian Games here on Monday.
The Indian pair was bidding to win a historic maiden silver medal in the Asian Games table tennis competition but were beaten in a thriller by the North Korean pair that came back after losing the first game. Ayhika and Sutirtha lost the match 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 2-11 in a well-fought encounter.
It was a quiet day at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Complex as India could manage only three silver and one bronze in the athletics, a far cry from the sensational and stormy performance of Sunday when they bagged nine medals including two gold.
The silver medals in athletics were won by Parul Choudhary in Women’s 3000m steeplechase, SE Ancy in women’s long jump and the fortuitous one bagged by the 4x400m Mixed Relay team which was upgraded to silver after Sri Lanka was disqualified for lane infringement.
Parul Chaudhary bagged the first silver of the day in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, finishing second in 9:27.63 while Priti Lamba took bronze behind her with a personal best timing of 9:43.32. They finished behind the reigning World Champion and Jakarta Asian Games gold medallist Winfred Mutile Yavi, a Kenya-born athlete who represents Bahrain now, who set a new Asian Games Record by clocking 9:18,23, breaking the record of 9:31.36 held by her compatriot Ruth Jabel.
Ancy leapt to a personal best distance of 6.63 metres to finish second behind China’s Shiqi Xiong, who achieved her personal best of 6.73 to claim the gold medal.
The third silver was claimed by the 4x400m Mixed Relay in which the Indians initially finished third but were upgraded to silver after the Sri Lankan quartet was disqualified for lane infringement.
Mohammed Ajmal had given India a good start as he led the race, clocking 43.14 seconds. Vithya completed her leg in 54.19 and handed the baton to Rajesh Ramesh with India still in first position. But Ramesh clocked 45.77 and India fell behind to second position. Subha Venkatesh completed her leg in 51.24 as India finished the race in 314.34. Bahrain took the gold medal in 3:13.02 seconds while Kazakhstan were upgraded to bronze in 3:24.85.
