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Day 2 of the 2018 Asian Games will see India’s top female wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sakhi Malik compete for the gold medals.
Also in action will be the men’s and women’s kabaddi teams as well as the men’s hockey team. In fact, all three teams are the defending champions from the 2014 Incheon Asian Games with the hockey team also booking their Olympics berth with a gold four years back.
The shooters get Day 2 underway. Ravi Kumar and Deepak Kumar are currently competing in the 10m Air Rifle Men qualification. Seema Tomar is third in the ongoing qualification round of the Trap Women event.
The Indian women's team quarter-final match against top seeds Japan in underway. In the first game, Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu has won the first set 21-18 against world No 2 Akane Yamaguchi.
PV Sindhu has defeated world no 2 Akane Yamaguchi in the first game of the women’s team quarter-final.
After winning the first set 21-18, Sindhu was trailing 8-10 in the second set. But the Indian shuttler won three straight points to take an 11-10 lead. She eventually won the second set 21-18 to give India a 1-0 lead against Japan.
Next up, Nelakurthi Sikki Reedy and Sunil Arathi Sara are playing the doubles match.
Ravi Kumar and Deepak Kumar have qualified for the 10m Air Rifle Finals after finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the qualification round.
The final is scheduled to start at 9.15am IST.
Dushyant qualifies for the finals of the Men's Lightweight Single Sculls after finishing first in the Heats with a timing of 7.43.08.
Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara have lost to the Japanese world no 1 pair of Sayaka Hirota and Yuki Fukushima.
The Indian pair’s 15-21, 6-21 loss means Japan has levelled the score 1-1 in the women’s team quarter-final.
Next up, Saina Nehwal plays 2017 World Champion Nozomi Okuhara.
The Indian women’s basketball team are trailing 22-49 against Unified Korea after the first two quarters in their third women’s basketball Group A match.
With two quarters still to go, it is going to be an uphill task for the Indian women to reduce that lead.
After a 61-79 loss to Kazakhstan in the opener, the Indian women lost 61-82 to Chinese Taipei in their second match.
Two Indians – Ravi Kumar and Deepak Kumar – are vying for medals in the 10m Air Rifle Final, which is now underway.
Ravi and Deepak are in third and fourth positions respectively, after the first five shots.
Down to the last four shooters, and India are assured of at least one medal in the event. Placed third and fourth, Ravi and Deepak were fighting to stay alive. But it’s Deepak who stays on while Ravi bows out. Now what’s left to see is which medal he brings home.
India’s first medal day of the day! Deepak Kumar bags a silver in the 10m Air Rifle Men’s event with a score of 247.7.
Two Indians qualified for the finals of the event with Deepak placed behind Ravi Kumar in fourth and fifth positions. While Ravi failed to improve his placing, Deepak eventually jumped up three spots to bag the silver for India.
This is India's first silver at the 2018 Asian Games after Bajrang Punia won the gold and Apurvi Chandela along with Ravi Kumar won the mixed team bronze in the 10m air rifle event.
The Indian women’s kabaddi team beat Thailand 33-23 to register their second straight win at this Asian Games.
Another dominant performances after the two-time defending champions defeated the Japanese women 43-12 in their opening match.
Later today, the Indian men’s team will be playing South Korea in their Pool B match at 3:00pm IST.
Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal loses the third match in the women’s team event quarter-final against Japan.
The 2017 World Champion from Japan Nozomi Okuhara has won the third match of the tie 21-11, 23-25, 21-16 to give the top seeds a 2-1 lead over India.
Another shot at winning a medal for shooter Apurvi Chandela as she qualifies for the 10m Air Rifle Women’s final with a score of 629.4. She finishes second in the qualification round after Ruozhu Zhao.
The other Indian in the event, Elavenil Valarivan fails to move forwards after finishing 14th.
The final is scheduled to take place at 11.30am.
Another loss for the Indian women’s basketball team.
After losing to Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei in their first two games, India have been thrashed 104-54 by Unified Korea.
Ankita Raina is through to the pre-quarters of the women’s singles tennis event after a 6-2, 6-4 win over Indonesia’s Gumulya Beatrice. The Indian tennis player’s Round of 16 match is scheduled to take place tomorrow (21 August).
After Bajrang’s gold on Day 1, there are a few more medal hopes in wrestling today with four women and one man in action.
125 kg freestyle wrestler Sumit starts the day with his pre-quarter match before the women take centre-stage. Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik (62 kg) and CWG gold medallist Vinesh Phogat (50 kg) along with Pinki Jhangra (53 kg) and Pooja Dhanda (57 kg) will fight it out for gold starting 12pm.
The finals of all categories start at 6pm IST.
The Indian women have knocked out of the badminton team event after a 1-3 loss to top seeds Japan.
The women’s 10m Air Rifle final is underway and Apurvi Chandela is the one Indian in contention after qualifying for the final in the second spot.
Shooters make two shots and after each set, one competitor is eliminated from the final.
Chandela has already opened her medal account at these Asian Games after winning the mixed team bronze with Ravi Kumar yesterday.
Despite qualifying for the final in the second spot, Apurvi Chandela has dropped out of medal contention in the 10m Air Rifle final.
The Indian shooter was the fourth shooter to be eliminated from the final.
In her opening bout, Vinesh Phogat drew a tough opponent in China’s Sun Yanan who had won the 2013 World Championships and is also a silver medallist from the 2014 Asian Games. Interestingly, Yanan is the same player against who Vinesh was playing her Olympics bout when she got injuried in Rio.
In Indonesia though, the Indian medal favourite was all class as she raced to a quick 2-0 lead in the first minute. She however saved her best move for the end. 2 minutes left in the bout and Vinesh got a solid hold of the Chinese opponent, picking up 6 points in one move to race to an 8-0 lead. While she did concede two points towards the end, the only Phogat sister at these Asian Games had done enough to close the bout and move into the quarters.
53 kg category wrestler Pinki has lost her very first bout to Mongolia’s Sumiya Erdenechimeg by technical superiority.
Pooja Dhanda though needed just over a minute to close out her win against Thailand’s Orasa Sookdongyor in the 57 kg category. The Indian opened up a 10-0 lead in a minute and four seconds to be awarded the bout by technical superiority.
Sakshi Malik all class in her Round of 16 match as well, needing just two minutes against Thailand’s Salinees Srisombat to win her bout by technical superiority.
The Olympic bronze medallist gets a strong hold of her opponent and maintains the position till she has opened up the 10-point lead needed to be awarded the win before the six minutes of regulation time finish.
After beating Rio Olympics bronze medallist in her opening bout, Vinesh was handed an easier opponent in Korea’s 33-year-old Kim Hyungjoo in the quarters.
After Period 1, the Indian had a dominant 6-0 lead and with 90 seconds to go in the bout, the Korean made a play that backfired as Vinesh had her on her back. The four points from the move meant Vinesh won the bout by technical superiority. Kim asked for a review on a move which was overruled and extra point was added in Vinesh’s tally.
A 11-0 win and Vinesh is one win from assured medal.
Joining Vinesh in the semis is 57 kg wrestler Pooja Dhanda who beat 19-year-old Nabira Esenbaeva 12-1 in their quarter-final bout.
The 12th point earned Pooja the win by technical superiority.
Sakshi Malik’s bout will take place in just a bit.
Joining Vinesh and Pooja in the semis is the Olympic medallist, bagging another victory by technical superiority.
Wins in tennis as well for India as Kamran Kaur Thandi has won her first round match against Jargal Altansarnai in straight sets. Yesterday, Thandi won the mixed doubles opening match along with Divij Sharan as well.
Four Japanese basketball players have been sent home from the Asian Games in disgrace for allegedly paying prostitutes for sex, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) said Monday.
"I met with the athletes and they deeply regret what they did," delegation head Yasuhiro Yamashita said. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart as the head of the delegation."
Olympic bronze medallist Sakhi Malik has lost her semi-final 8-7 to Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan. She held a 7-6 lead till the last 10 seconds when her opponent pushed her on the mat, picking up two points.
Sakshi requested for a review and there were nervous moment but the bout was indeed awarded to her opponent, who is bronze medallist from the 2017 World Championships. The extra point for a failed review making the final scoreline 9-7.
Pooja Dhanda too will now be fighting for bronze after losing her semi-final by technical superiority to North Korea’s Jong Myong Suk.
Indian teenager Lakshay has won the day’s second medal, a silver in the Men’s Trap event.
The 19-year-old finished with a score of 43/50 behind Chinese Taipei’s Kunpi Yang who took home the gold with a score of 48/50.
Seasoned campaigner Manavjit Singh Sandhu missed the podium, finishing fourth after he got eliminated with a score of 26 after 35 shots.
In a major upset, seven-time gold medallist India suffered their first ever loss in the Asian Games to South Korea in the men's Kabaddi Group A match.
India lost 23-24 to South Korea, who won the bronze medal in the Incheon Games four years ago, in a match that went down to the wire.
This is the first defeat for India in 28 years at the Asian Games.
After the women, the Indian men’s badminton team is also out in the quarter-finals following a 3-1 loss to Indonesia.
Former world number 1 Kidambi Srikanth was the first on court and lost the opening match to world number 12 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-23, 22-20, 10-21. In the doubles match,
Marcus/Kevin beat Rankireddy/Shetty 19-21, 21-19, 20-16.
HS Prannoy though got India on the board with a 21-15, 19-21, 21-19 win over world number 15 Jonatan Christie.
The loss though was closed when Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto beat the doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie.
History made! Vinesh Phogat has became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold with her victory over Japan's Yuki Irie in the 50 kilogram women's Freestyle category.
Vinesh completely dominated the contest, taking a 4-0 lead initially before stretching it further to 6-2 to pocket the yellow metal.
Vinesh has been in top form today at the Asian Games, winning her semi-final against Daulatbike Yakshimuratova of Uzbekistan in just 75 seconds by technical superiority.
Pooja Dhanda lose 1-6 to Japan’s Katsuki Sakagami in the bronze medal match in the women’s 57 kg category.
In the first round both wrestlers looked to defend as Pooja was awarded a technical point.
Katsuki took control of the bout in the second round as Pooja sacrificed her defence to continue her attack. The Japanese took full advantage of it to make it 6-1 at the end Round 2.
Wrestler Sakshi Malik lost her 62 kg category bronze medal match 2-12 against North Korea’s Rim Jong-Sim.
Sakshi was never in the match as her North Korean opponent took a 6-0 lead in first two minutes. Eventually Sakshi lost on technical superiority after playing for 2:42 minutes.
Wrestler Sumit Malik fails to win the bronze after losing 0-2 to Uzbekistan’s Modzmanashvili Davit in the men’s 125 kg category.
Indian men’s hockey team scored 17 goals against their Indonesian counterpart in their Pool A opener.
Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh and Simranjeet Singh scored three goals while Rupinder Pal Singh scored a brace.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian team like their female counterparts failed to take a single shot at the Indian goal.
India will next play Hong Kong on Wednesday, 22 August, in their second match of Pool A.
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