Incheon: The men’s squash and archery teams secured historic gold medals as India enjoyed their most productive day in the 17th Asian Games so far with an impressive collection of 10 medals to jump to the 11th position in the overall standings on the eighth day of competitions in Incheoon on Saturday.
Young archer Abhishek Verma was the 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.
Abhishek’s heroics were followed by the men’s squash team led by Saurav Ghosal which claimed the coveted gold medal in the team event while the women’s team of Dipika Pallikal, Anaka Alankamony and Joshana Chinappa also excelled by clinching the silver medal.
Shooter Chain Singh (50m rifle 3 position), archer Trisha Deb (women’s compound individual), grappler Vinesh Phogat (women’s 48kg), Geetika Jakhar (women’s 63kg) and athlete Lalita Babar (women’s 3000m steeplechase), women’s compound team — comprising Trisha, Purvasha Shende and Jyothi Surekha Vennam — were the bronze medal winners on what turned out to be India’s best day at the Games.
With the addition of 10 more medals, India, placed 16 overnight, rose to the 11th position in the table with a tally of three gold, four silver and twenty bronze medals. China continued to leave their opponents behind with an impressive haul of 195 medals (96-58-41), followed by South Korea (35-42-40) and Japan (32-43-38).
India were also assured of at least five bronze medals in tennis event by reaching the semi-finals.
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 semi-finals with a scrappy 2-0 win over China in their last pool B match.