The men's compound archery team picked up a historic gold medal as India enjoyed their most productive day in the 17th Asian Games so far with an impressive collection of six medals to jump to the 11th position in the overall standings on the eighth day of competitions here today.
Young archer Abhishek Verma was hero of the day as he combined with Rajat Chauhan and Sandeep Kumar to clinch the gold medal in the compound team event before picking up the individual silver medal at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field.
The squash team of Dipika Pallikal, Anaka Alankamony and Joshana Chinappa provided a boost to the medal collection by taking the silver in the team event after losing the final to mighty Malaysia.
Shooter Chain Singh (50m rifle 3 position), archer Trisha Deb (women's compound individual) and the women's compound team -- comprising Trisha, Purvasha Shende and Jyothi Surekha Vennam -- were the medal winners (bronze) on what turned out to be India's best day at the Games.
With the addition of six more medals, India, overnight placed 16th, rose to the 11th position on the table with two gold, four silver and 17 bronze medals. China continued to leave their opponents behind with an impressive haul of 187 medals (95-53-39), followed by South Korea (35-41-38) and Japan (30-42-36).
While the archers and squash players stole the limelight with their medal-winning heroics, the Indian boxers also moved to the quarterfinals with easy victories over their opponents.
The men's hockey team also kept their medal hopes alive by advancing to the semifinals with a scrappy 2-0 win over China in their last pool B match.
However, the spotlight belonged to the archers, who scripted history with their maiden compound gold medal by shocking favourites South Korea.
The women's trio had set the tone in the morning by clinching the compound team bronze by defeating Iran in the play-off for the third position at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field. Later, Trisha bagged a bronze in the individual event.
India had won one silver and three bronze medals from the bow and arrow discipline in the previous Games and today's gold lifted the sagging spirits of the huge contingent which had endured a gold drought after pistol shooter Jitu Rai's top finish six days ago.
