India had to wait until the fag end of day ten of competition at the Incheon Asian Games for their fifth and sixth gold medals of the event, which were provided by discus-thrower Seema Punia and the tennis mixed doubles team of Sania Mirza and Saketh Sai Myneni - after a couple of final defeats in tennis and wrestling delivered two silver medals.
The two gold on Monday took India's tally to six, with an overall count of 42 including 7 silver and 29 bronze medals. Punia conquered the discus throw event with a distance of 61.03m while the rest of the field failed to touch the 60m mark. Seema's compatriot Krishna Poonia finished fourth. China's Xiaoxin Lu and Jian Tan picked up the silver and bronze, respectively. At the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Seema had won silver.
That was followed by the mixed doubles team final where Sania and Myneni took on the Chinese Taipei pair of Hsien Yin Peng and Hao Ching Chan. The India pair had little trouble defeating their opponents winning 6-4, 6-3 to clinch India's only gold in the tennis event.
A little before Seema won India its 5th gold, wrestler Bajrang had to remain content with a silver medal after losing his 61kg final 1-3 to Iranian Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari. That was followed by Bajrang's fellow wrestler Narsingh Yadav winning bronze medal in the 74kg category, beating Japan's Daisuke Shimada in a play-off match.
India played its first final of the day in the men's doubles tennis event but had to taste defeat and stay content with the white metal. Sanam Singh could not add a second consecutive Asian Games gold medal to his kitty as he and Saketh Myneni came second in the men's doubles tennis final, losing the hard-fought battle in straight sets to Korea's Yongkyu Lim and Hyeon Chung. The fifth-seeded Indians lost the summit clash 5-7, 6-7 (2) in an hour and 29 minutes to the eighth-seeded local favourites.
Apart from Punia's gold-winning effort, Indian athletes also impressed in the track events where Naveen Kumar bagged a bronze in the 3000m Men's Steeplechase and OP Jaisha bagged the medal of same colour in Women's 1500m race. Also, the men's team of 4x400m Relay qualified for the final, finishing second in Round 1 Heat.
It wasn't a good day for boxers at Incheon on Monday, where just one of the four men in action progress to the next round.
Vikas Krishan eased past Azamat Uulu Kanybek of Kyrgyzstan to reach the quarterfinals of the middle weight (75kg) category, but Mandeep Jangra (Welter, 69kg), Kuldeep Singh (Light Heavy, 81kg) and Gaurav Bidhuri (Fly, 52kg) were all knocked out in the quarter-finals.
The paddlers had mixed fortunes on a see-sad day for the Indian table tennis contingent. The team of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Poulomi Ghatak was knocked out after losing in straight games to a Thailand team in the mixed doubles.
Meanwhile, Ankita Das registered a comprehensive 4-0 win over her Kuwait opponent to advance to the women's singles second round and the mixed doubles team of Anthony Amalraj and Madhurika Patkar progressed to the pre-quarters after getting a bye in the first round. They beat the Mongolian pair of Orgil Munkh Batbayar and Enkhjin Barkhas 3-0.
India continued to dominate in the kabaddi arena as the men's team thrashed Thailand 66-27 in a preliminary Group A match. India had beaten Bangladesh in their campaign opener.
However, India's campaign in women's hockey bowed out of the medal race as the Indian girls lost 1-3 to South Korea in the semi-final on Monday. The Indian men's team also takes on the hosts tomorrow for a place in the final.
The Indian canoe and kayak sprint contingent had a disappointing outing as none of the competitors managed to make a podium finish at the Hanam Misari Canoe/Kayak Center.
The men's 1000 metre Canoe Double pair of Ajit Kumar Saha and Raju Rawat finished fifth while the Kayak Four team of Ajit Singh, Sunny Kumar, Ramesh Golli, and A Chingching Singh ended the 1000 metre race at eighth spot. Raj Albert Selvaraj came eighth in Kayak Single 1000 metre race and Jamesboy Singh Oinam finished ninth in Canoe Single 200 metre event.
In the women's section, the 500 metre Kayak quartet of Ragina Kiro, Anusha Biju, P Soniya Devi and A Nanao Devi ended seventh and the 500 metre Kayak Double team of Ragino Kiro and A Nanao Devi came ninth.
Indian men's Sepaktakraw team registered a comprehensive straight-game win over Brunei and Nepal but their women counterparts sunk against Indonesia in preliminary round matches on Monday.
The Indian team took just 38 minutes to see off the challenge from Brunei 21-12, 21-15 in men's regu preliminary group B match early in the day before getting a 2-0 result in their favour after Nepal did not start the match at the Bucheon Gymnasium. With two wins from as many matches, the Indian men are now placed at the top of the group, while Korea are second.
However, the women's team went down in a little over half an hour as their fight was crushed 12-21, 13-21 by Indonesian eves in a Women's Regu preliminary Group A match. Indian women are placed at the bottom of Group A, which also comprises China and Laos, besides Indonesia.
(With inputs from agencies)
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