Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold while the shooters bagged two silver medals on the second day of competitions here on Monday.
Vinesh defeated Japan's Yuki Irie in the 50 kilogram women's Freestyle final. This was India's second gold after wrestler Bajrang Punia bagged one in men's 65kg on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Deepak Kumar and Lakshay Sheoran won silver medals in the men's 10m Air Rifle and Trap events respectively as Indian shooters continued their impressive performance at the 18th Asian Games.
Deepak finished second with a score of 247.7, while compatriot Ravi Kumar finished fourth scoring 205.2 in the men's 10m Air Rifle competition. China's Haoran Yang bagged gold with a new Games record of 249.1m.
It was the 30-year-old Deepak's first medal at the Asiad.
In the men's trap final, Lakshay finished second, while compatriot Manavjit Singh Sandhu was fifth. The 20-year-old Lakshay, who had finished fourth in the qualification round, got 43 points in the final to finish second behind Chinese Taipei's Kunpi Yang, who equalled the world record score of 48.
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A.H.N. Daemyeong of South Korea got the bronze medal with 30 points, four ahead of Indian veteran Manavjit who had topped the two-phased qualification.
With this, India took the eighth spot in the Asian Games medal tally with 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze.
The Indian men's hockey team began their title defence in style as they hammered 17 goals past Indonesia in their first Pool A match to register their biggest ever win at the continental competition.
Youngsters Dilpreet Singh, Simranjeet Singhand Mandeep Singh scored a hat-trick each, while the other goals came from Rupinder Pal Singh, Akashdeep Singh, SV Sunil, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Amit Rohidas, even as Indonesia couldn't come up with a goal.
With the Indian forwards showcasing top form, puncturing Indonesian defence hooter-to-hooter, the match eventually turned out to be one-sided as PR Sreejesh-led squad demonstrated different variations to score goals.
In wrestling, apart from Vinesh's gold, it turned out to be a disappointing day for India.
Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik suffered a 2-12 humiliation at hands of Rim Jong Sim of North Korea in the bronze medal play-off of the women's 62kg category. She had earlier lost 7-9 to Kyrgyzstan's Aisuluu Tynybekova in the semi-finals.
Pooja Dhanda also missed a bronze in the women's 57kg category as she lost 1-6 to Japan's Katsuki Sakagami. Meanwhile, Pinki was thrashed 0-10 by Mongolia's Sumiya Erdenechimeg in the women's 53kg pre-quarterfinals.
Among the men, India's Sumit Malik lost 0-2 to Davit Modzmanashvili of Uzbekistan in the bronze medal play-off in the 125kg division. He had lost 0-10 to eventual champion Parviz Hadibasmanu of Iran in the first round before thrashing Kazakhstan's Oleg Boltin 7-0 in the repechage rounds.
Vinesh completely dominated the final, taking a 4-0 lead initially before stretching it further to 6-2 to pocket the yellow metal.
Vinesh, who beat Irie in the Asian Championships semi-final earlier this year, started cautiously before taking four points with a takedown.
The Indian displayed some great defence to hold on to her 4-0 lead at the end of the first three minutes.
After the breather, Vinesh's defence was deemed too passive by the referee and the Indian was forced to concede a point that somehow reduced the deficit to 4-1 with 30 seconds to go.
But the 2014 Incheon Asiad bronze medallist came back well to pocket two more points towards the end that saw her clinch the gold with a 6-2 margin.
Earlier, Vinesh hardly broke a sweat in her semi-final encounter against Daulatbike Yakshimuratova of Uzbekistan, whom she trounced in mere 75 seconds by technical superiority (10-0).
Vinesh had earlier registered a comfortable 11-0 victory over South Korea's Kim Hyungjoo in the quarter-finals, after defeating China's Sun Yanan by technical superiority 8-2 in the 1/8 finals.
Experienced shooter Apurvi Chandela finished fifth in the women's 10m Air Rifle final. Apurvi was placed third at one stage. But despite a great start, the 25-year-old faltered towards the end and could manage to shoot only 186 points to finish fifth.
Earlier on Monday, Apurvi scored 629.4 points to be placed second in the qualification round. On Sunday, Apurvi along with Ravi Kumar had bagged bronze in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team event.
Seema Tomar finished sixth in the women's trap event as she disappointed with 12 points in the finals.
Elsewhere, India were assured of a first-ever medal in Sepaktakraw as they entered the semi-finals of the mens team Regu event after finishing second in Group B here.
There are only six teams in the competition, which means India is assured of a medal as the losing semi-finalists will get bronze.
In the preliminary round, India got the better of Iran 2-1, later losing to Indonesia 3-0. They qualified for the last four stage as the second best team in their group.
Shooter Deepak Kumar handed India it's third medal at the ongoing 2018 Asian Games after he clinched silver in the Mens 10m Air Rifle category here on Monday.
Deepak finished second with a score of 247.7 while compatriot Ravi Kumar finished fourth scoring 205.2. It was also the 30-year-old's first medal at the Asiad.
In rowing, India's quadruple sculls team and Dushyant entered the finals of their respective events.
Dushyant topped Heat 1 of the men's lightweight single sculls category with a timing of 7 minutes and 43.08 seconds to make it to the final.
In the men's quadruple sculls, India's team of Sawarn Singh, Om Prakash, Sukhmeet Singh and Dattu Bhokanal completed the Heat 1 in the top spot with a timing of 6:15.18 to enter the final.
India's Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Singh finished second in Heat 1 of the men's lightweight doubles sculls with a timing of 6:57.75 minutes to enter the repechage round. The Indian pair was third in the overall standings.
India's women's fours team of Sanjukta Dung Dung, Annu, Navneet Kaur and Yamini Singh was fourth in Heat 1 with a timing of 7:57.33 minutes to qualify for the repechage round. India was seventh in the overall standings.
In wushu, India's Santosh Kumar (56kg), Surya Bhanu Partap Singh (60kg) and Narender Grewal (65kg) advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's sanda competition.
Santosh Kumar defeated Yemen's Zaid Ali Wazea 2-0, while Surya also advanced to the quarter-finals with a 2-1 victory over Indonesian Abdul Haris Sofyan 2-1.
Narender moved in to the Round-of-Eight in the men's 65kg category as he defeated Philippines Clemente Tabugara 2-1.
Meanwhile, L. Sanathombi Chanu finished eighth in the women's taijijian category with 9.63 points.
Indian tennis players enjoyed a successful day with Ramkumar Ramanathan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ankita Raina registering comprehensive victories in their respective matches.
Ramanathan and Gunneswaran entered the Round of 16 in the men's singles category with straight sets wins.
Ramanathan defeated Wong of Hong Kong 6-0, 7-6(4) while Gunneswaran pummllled Indonesia's Rifqi Fitriadi 6-2, 6-0.
Ankita thrashed Gumulya Beatrice of Indonesia 6-2, 6-4 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition.
But there was disappoint in store for Indians at the badminton arena as India's men's badminton team lost 1-3 to hosts Indonesia in the quarter-finals.
H.S. Prannoy was the only Indian to have got a point for India, while Kidambi Srikanth and the doubles pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy lost.
Srikanth lost to Anthony Ginting 21-23, 23-21, 10-21 as the hosts got a 1-0 lead. The hosts doubled their advantage when Satwik-Chirag fell to Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-19, 19-21, 16-21.
Prannoy then defeated Jonatan Christie 21-15, 21-19 to keep India in the contest, with the win making it 1-2 at the Istora Senayan Stadium.
However, Manu-summeth coulnd't take the contest to the decider, losing 14-21, 18-21 to Fahar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, as Indonesia won 3-1 to enter the semi-finals.
In other quarter-finals, Japan thrashed defending champions South Korea 3-0, Chinese Taipei crushed Nepal 3-0 and China routed Hong Kong 3-0.
In the semi-finals on Tuesday, Japan will meet Indonesia, while Chinese Taipei will take on China.
India crashed out of the women's badminton team event as well after going down 1-3 to formidable Japan in the quarter-finals.
India failed to emulate their 2014 Incheon bronze medal feat here, as only Rio Olympics silver medallist P.V.Sindhu managed to pull off a narrow win over world number one Akane Yamaguchi in the singles match, while her compatriot Saina Nehwal and the women's doubles pair of Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa, and N.Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sunil lost their respective matches.
In what turned out to be a close affair in the opening singles match, Sindhu got the better of Yamaguchi 21-18, 21-19. Sindhu, who took 41 minutes to put India ahead, had also beaten Yamaguchi at the recent World Championship on the way to the final.
Japan equalised the affair 1-1, after Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hiroto thrashed the Indian pair of Sikki and Arathi in straight games to 21-15, 21-6.
Thereafter, in the second singles match, Saina made a dramatic comeback to save four match points in the second game before going down to Nozomi Okuhara 11-21, 25-23, 16-21 in one hour and 11 minutes.
Trailing 1-2 in the affair, India then lost the must-win fourth match, with Sindhu and Ashwini meekly surrendering 13-21, 12-21 to Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahasi.
--IANS
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