Asian Games 2018 Day 8 wrap: 3 athletics silver medals take India's tally to 36

It was a seven-medal day for India on Sunday at the Asian Games 2018 as they took their tally to 36. India are currently in the ninth position in the medal table with 7 gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze.

The first medal of the day came for India in the equestrian event as Fouaad Mirza won a silver medal in the jumping final. His valiant effort also helped the Indian team bag silver in the same event.

Mirza scored 26.40 points behind Japanese gold medallist Yoshiaka Oiwa, who scored 22.70. China's Alex Tian Hua finished third with 27.10 points.

In the team event, India, comprising Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik and Jitender Singh and Mirza, finished with 121.30 behind Japan's 82.40 to get a silver. Thailand finished third with 126.70 points.

Asian Games, Day 8: Highlights

Mirza became the first Indian to win an Asian Games individual medal in the equestrian event in 36 years. Raghubir Singh, Ghulam Mohammed Khan and Prahlad Singh had won the gold, silver and bronze in the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi.

Fouaad Mirza, Team India win silver medals in Equestrian

Fouaad topped the dressage and cross-country qualifiers with a score of 22.40 and went into the jumping finals as a favourite. In the medal round, he notched up 26.40 to bag silver in the three-day competition.

What a day for India in athletics!

In a Magnificent run, Indias Dutee Chand won SILVER medal in Women's 100 m with a timing of 11.32sec.

KUDOS to you Champion! #AsianGames2018 #KheloIndia #IndiaAtAsianGames pic.twitter.com/GI6ZH8o4Tm Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) August 26, 2018

India had previously won 10 medals in the sport, including three gold.

The last individual medal in eventing came in 1982 when Raghubir Singh finished on the podium in the Indian capital.

TWO MEDALS IN BRIDGE

Two medals came for India in the debut sport of bridge.

India earned the bronze medals after the men and mixed teams lost their semi-final matches.

India settle for two bronze medals in bridge

The men's team lost to Singapore while the mixed team suffered defeat at the hands of Thailand.

Seems like a great day for the Bridge Team! Our Mens team wins a Bronze and so does our Mixed Team. Congratulations to the contingent. #AsianGames2018 pic.twitter.com/PgpQX8WAMJ Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 26, 2018

There is no bronze medal play-off in bridge sport at the Games.

The sport of bridge has been introduced for the first time in the Asian Games.

ATHLETES SHINE ON SUNDAY

Hima Das shattered the 400m national record for a second time in two days for a silver while Dutee Chand grabbed the second place in 100m dash.

Muhammed Anas clinched a silver in men's 400m as well as Indian track and field athletes followed up the gold won by shot putter Tejinderpal Singh Toor yesterday.

Muhammed Anas wins men's 400m silver

Long distance runner Govindan Lakshmanan crossed the finishing line at third in men's 10,000m race but was later disqualified under IAAF 163.3b (lane infringement). He was initially shown to have clocked 29:44.91.

India did lodge a protest against the decision to disqualify Lakshmanan but the jury of appeals rejected it.

It was indeed a sensational performance by our 22yr-old star @DuteeChand who won a silver medal in the womens 100m with a timing of 11.32s.
The whole nation rejoices in your achievement. #SAI #IndiaAtAsianGames #Athletics @afiindia @iaaforg #AsianGames2018 #KheloIndia pic.twitter.com/N6pMo5Wckc SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 26, 2018

India's new track sensation, Hima clocked 50.59 seconds to win the silver, behind Bahrain's Salwa Naser who won the gold in a new Games record time of 50.09 seconds.

Hima Das wins silver in 400m with National Record

Hima, the reigning Under-20 world champion, had qualified for the final with a national record time of 51.00 seconds yesterday, bettering the 14-year-old mark set by Manjeet Kaur (51.05) in Chennai in 2004, and she today bettered it again.

Naser, the Nigerian-born 2017 World Championships silver medallist and winner of four legs of Diamond League Series this year, did not have to exert much in the end to clinch the goal.

Another Indian in the women's 400m final, Nirmala Sheoran finished fourth in 52.96.

Dutee Chand wins silver in women's 100m race

Asian champion Anas settled with a silver in the men's 400m final as he timed 45.69 seconds, behind Asian season leader and 2017 World Championships bronze medallist Hassan Abdalelah of Qatar, who clocked in 44.89 seconds.

Anas, who holds the national record of 45.24, had clocked 45.30 in the preliminary heats.

Heres the #MedalTally at the conclusion of action today!

With a total of 36 medals won by #India, were moving up the tally. #SAI #IndiaAtAsianGames #TeamIndia #AsianGames2018 #KheloIndia pic.twitter.com/Uvfo6Ea7vO SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 26, 2018

Arokia Rajiv finished fourth by clocking 45.84 which was better than his semifinals (46.08) timing.

Dutee qualified for the women's 100m final by clocking 11.43 in semifinal and two and a half hours later, she came out to run a memorable race.

Running in lane number 7, Dutte clocked 11.32 seconds, a tad below her national record of 11.29 seconds.

Dutee Chand delighted with Asiad medal after troubled past

Odiong Edidiong of Bahrain won the gold in 11.30 while Wei Yongli of China took the bronze in 11.33 in a close finish.

The 22-year-old from Odisha was taking part in her first Asian Games. She was suspended by the IAAF in 2014 under its hyperandrogenism policy but she filed an appealed before the Court of Arbitration for Sports and won it.

Recently, under a revised rule of the IAAF, Dutee was left outside the purview of the hyperandrogenism policy (which bars women athletes having male hormones above permissible limit from competing) which gave her liberty to pursue her career.

Sindhu in semi-finals!
A gritty performance from our star shuttler & #TOPSAthlete @Pvsindhu1 as she bt #THAs #NitchaonJindapol in 3 sets to reach her 1st #AsianGames SF in womens singles.#GoForGold #Badminton #SAI @BAI_Media #IndiaAtAsianGames #AsianGames2018 #KheloIndia pic.twitter.com/V6M67qxbVD SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 26, 2018

SAINA MAKES HISTORY

In badminton, PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal won their respective singles quarter-final match to assure two more medals for India.

Asian Games 2018: India's medal tally after Day 8

First it was London bronze medallist Saina, who ended a 36-year-old wait for an individual medal after locking at least a bronze following a 21-18 21-16 win over world number five Ratchanok Intanon in a 42-minute quarterfinal.

Rio silver medallist Sindhu then fought past world number 12 Nitchaon Jindapol 21-11 16-21 21-14 in the other quarterfinal.

SARJUBALA ADVANCES

In boxing, former world silver-medallist Sarjubala Devi advanced to the quarter-finals but Manoj Kumar and Shiva Thapa were ousted after pre-quarterfinal losses.

Sarjubala, competing in the flyweight 51kg category, defeated Tajikistan's Madina Ghaforova 5-0 in a bout which was more gruelling than what the score-line might suggest.

Govindan Lakshmanan loses 10,000m bronze due to disqualification

Manoj went out after being bested by Kyrgyzstan's Abdurakhman Abdurakhamanov in the welterweight 69kg category, while Shiva spent less than a minute in the ring before referee stopped the contest in favour of China's Jun Shan in the lightweight 60kg category.

INDIA REACH HOCKEY SEMIS

In hockey, Defending champions India continued their unbeaten run and beat South Korea 5-3 in a pool match to storm into the semi-finals of the men's hockey competition.

India scored through Rupinder Pal Singh (1st minute), Chinglensana Singh (4th), Lalit Upadhyay (15th), Manpreet Singh (49th) and Akashdeep Singh (55th), while Korea's goals came from the sticks of Manjae Jung (33rd, 35th) and Jonghyun Jang (59th).

India were also assured of at least two more silver medals after its men and women's team progressed to the final of the compound archery team events in Jakarta on Sunday.

The Indian men are the defending champions and they lived up to their reputation by getting the better of Chinese Taipei 230-227 in the semi-finals.

The Indian women, who had returned with a bronze medal from Incheon four years ago, too, beat Chinese Taipei 225-222 in the semi-finals to progress to the gold medal match.

(With PTI inputs)