Indian shooters, rowers make a mark; boxer Nikhat makes rousing start

The gold medal eluded them, but India kicked off their Asian Games campaign by bagging three silver and two bronze on Day 1 of the continental showpiece on Sunday. It sets the ball rolling for the 655-member contingent and the country will hope to start making some serious inroads soon.

The shooters, in the women’s 10m air rifle event, were expected to challenge for medals and they did exactly that. Ramita Jindal, Mehuli Ghosh, and Ashi Chouksey opened India’s account at the Hangzhou Asiad with a silver in the women’s team event. The Chinese trio of Han Jiayu, Yuting Huang and Zhilin Wang took the first gold medal of the Games, shooting 1,896.6 points in the final. The Indians shot 1,886, followed by Mongolia (1,876.9).

In the individual final, competing in a quality field that included Chinese world No.1 Han Jiayu, world No.14 Yuting Huang and World Championships bronze medallist Ghosh, the 19-year-old Ramita shot with admirable calm and precision to seal bronze.

“I am very happy. I knew I would win something here. To win two medals on the opening day of the competition is special,” Jindal said after the final.

Jindal, who took up shooting as a hobby just six years ago, is already a double gold medallist at the Junior World Championships. She achieved the feat in Cairo last year. She finished fourth at the two senior World Cups she shot in Cairo and Bhopal this year before finally climbing onto the podium on Sunday.

India’s medal tally also got a bump with medals from the rowing competition. The lightweight double sculls pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh tore through the calm waters of the Beizhi river to claim silver. The Chinese pair of Junjie Fan and Man Sun won gold.

“We always wanted to win an Asian Games medal and were working for it for the past four or five years. We made it to the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as well, so this result doesn’t shock us. We never thought about the colour of the medal, but now that we have won silver, we shall try for gold in the next edition,” Arjun, a Naib Subedar with Rajputana Rifles, said.

It wasn’t the only medal India won in rowing. A little later in the day, Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram won bronze in men’s pair event with a time of 6:50.41 minutes behind Hong Kong and Uzbekistan, who won gold and silver respectively.

India also clinched silver in the Men’s Eight with the team of Charanjeet Singh, DU Pande, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neeraj, Neetesh Kumar, Ashish, Bheem Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Punit Kumar clocking 5:43.01 mins. China won gold in 5:40.17 while Indonesia, who were ahead of India at the 1000m mark, finished third at 5:45.51.

In men’s double sculls final, India’s Satnam Singh and Parminder Singh were second till the halfway mark before dropping to third at 1500m, eventually finishing last in the six pair race. They timed 6:40.90 minutes.

World champion Nikhat Zareen’s Asiad opener against Vietnam’s Tam Thi Nguyen — a rematch between the World Championships finalists — ended up being a bit of a cakewalk for the Indian, who cruised to a unanimous win against an opponent who had given her a bruised lip in New Delhi just five months back.

There was no gold to show on Sunday but the five medals mean that India are seventh in the medal standings, which were expectedly dominated by China.

The host country won 20 gold medals — 30 overall — on Sunday to show that they won’t be relinquishing the top spot this time around either. They have finished top of the table in every edition since 1982.

South Korea won five gold medals on the first day and 14 overall to trail China in second place while Japan with two golds stood third.

The Asian Games feature 12,500 participants from 45 nations and territories. Next year’s Olympics will involve about 10,500 from more than 200 delegations.