Anjana Sasi | Reporting from Aichi-Nagoya, Japan
Aichi-Nagoya: India ended Sunday with two silver medals on the Asian Games table, both coming from shooting, while medals were assured in mixed martial arts (MMA) and women’s cricket. There were convincing wins in hockey and encouraging starts in badminton and table tennis too, but the day also brought a few reminders that medals at the Asian Games are often decided by fine margins.
China finished Sunday at the top of the medal table with 11 gold, six silver and three bronze medals, for a total of 20. Japan was second with six gold, seven silver and seven bronze — also 20 overall — while South Korea was third with four gold, three silver and seven bronze. India stood 10th with two silver medals. Both Indian medals came from the women’s 10m air rifle, with Elavenil Valarivan involved in both.
Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod took silver in the team event, finishing behind China. Valarivan then returned for the individual final and added another silver with 252.4 points, finishing just behind Japan’s Hinata Taihi, who scored 253.0. It was a strong start for an Indian shooting contingent carrying considerable expectations at these Games.
MMA Opens a New Medal Route
India also moved closer to another medal through mixed martial arts, which is making its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya. Suchika Tariyal reached the semifinal of the women’s Traditional MMA 60kg category after defeating Mongolia’s Altanchimeg Baigalmaa. Her place in the last four assured India of at least a bronze medal and created a landmark moment in a sport appearing at the Asian Games for the first time.
For Tariyal, whose sporting background includes judo, the result also demonstrated how a new discipline can create an entirely new medal pathway for India.
Shafali’s Century Sends India Into the Final
The most emphatic Indian performance of the day, however, came in women’s cricket. Shafali Verma’s unbeaten 100 off 49 balls powered India to 195/4 against Bangladesh before the bowlers dismissed their opponents for 81, completing a 114-run victory and securing India’s place in the gold-medal match against Sri Lanka. The century was significant not only because of the semifinal.
Shafali became the first cricketer to score a hundred in Asian Games history and, at the same time, registered her maiden T20I century. Smriti Mandhana helped India build the early platform with 37, sharing a 72-run opening partnership with Shafali before the latter carried the innings through to its conclusion. India now has another medal assured. The only question is its colour.
Hockey Starts With Authority
The hockey teams also began their campaigns emphatically. The Indian women defeated Uzbekistan 19-0, with Deepika scoring eight goals, while the men opened with a 13-1 victory over Indonesia, Dilpreet Singh contributing four. The scorelines were eye-catching, although the real examination for both teams will come against stronger opposition. For now, however, both have started with the kind of authority expected from teams carrying serious medal ambitions.
Badminton and Table Tennis Make Progress
India’s women’s badminton team moved into the quarterfinals after a 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan and will next face hosts Japan. Table tennis produced a more mixed picture. The women showed character to defeat Singapore 3-2 after an earlier 3-0 victory over Indonesia. The men also began with a 3-0 win over Indonesia but were then beaten 0-3 by Iran. The defeat is one of the results India will want to put behind it quickly as the competition moves towards the more demanding stages.
Teqball Heartbreak by the Smallest Margin
There were also medals that slipped away. Quimcy Dsouza came agonisingly close in teqball, losing the women’s singles bronze-medal contest against Japan’s Yuina Sakamoto in straight games — 11-12, 11-12. The scoreline demonstrated how little separated an Asian Games medal from fourth place.
Dsouza later returned for the mixed doubles bronze-medal match, where India also missed out against Vietnam. It was a difficult end to what had otherwise been a promising run in teqball’s first appearance at the Asian Games. Swimming and wushu produced similarly mixed returns.
Rishabh Das reached the men’s 100m backstroke final but finished sixth, while Suraj Singh Mayanglambam finished eighth in the men’s changquan final. These results are not necessarily failures. But they do demonstrate how difficult it can be to turn a place in an Asian Games final into a place on the podium when competing against countries with considerable depth in those disciplines.
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Promising Start, but the Margins Will Tighten
That, in many ways, was the story of India’s Sunday. There were enough performances to suggest that the campaign had begun on solid ground, but also enough missed opportunities to demonstrate that the medal count will not rise simply because India has arrived with a large and experienced contingent. Shooting delivered immediately. Cricket produced a dominant performance and another guaranteed medal.
Hockey displayed its attacking depth, while the women’s teams in badminton and table tennis handled their early tests well. MMA opened another medal route in a discipline making its Asian Games debut. But the absence of a gold after Sunday’s medal action also provided some perspective.
It was still far too early to draw conclusions from the medal table. Several of India’s traditional medal-producing disciplines had yet to reach their decisive stages, while athletics, wrestling, boxing and other events would become increasingly important as the Games progressed.
Monday Quickly Changes the Picture
And by Monday morning, the campaign had already begun to move again. Rudrankksh Patil, Himanshu Dhillon and Parth Mane added another silver in the men’s 10m air-rifle team event, finishing behind China. Himanshu then won silver in the individual 10m air-rifle final, with Rudrankksh taking bronze — extending shooting’s remarkable contribution to India’s early medal haul.
Suchika Tariyal’s assured MMA medal also became a bronze after she was narrowly defeated by Singapore’s Teo Hui Hoon in the semifinal. It nevertheless became India’s first Asian Games medal in MMA.
Other competitions were also gathering pace, with hockey, kabaddi, badminton, table tennis, boxing, swimming, wushu and shooting all featuring prominently on Monday’s programme. The medal table will change repeatedly from here. For India, therefore, the more useful question is not where it happens to stand after one morning or one evening.
It is whether promising starts can be converted when the margins become smaller, opponents stronger and a place on the podium depends on one decisive shot, point, bout or moment. Two silver medals opened India’s account on Sunday. By Monday, the campaign was already becoming something larger.
Disclosure: Anjana Sasi’s travel for TheNews21’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games coverage has been supported by a private individual who has requested anonymity. The supporter has no role in TheNews21’s editorial decisions or coverage.
