7 strokes ahead, Aditi Ashok bogeys chance to win gold

Hangzhou, October 1

Aditi Ashok’s fortunes changed on the final day as she carded a horrendous 5-over 77 to sign off with a silver medal for India’s first medal in women’s golf at the Asian Games here today.

You’re never totally happy unless you win. I’m sure someday I’ll look back and think it was a good week but silver is not better than gold won today. Aditi Ashok

Coming into the final day with a commanding 7-stroke lead, Aditi saw the advantage evaporate as she stumbled upon four bogeys and a double-bogey against a lone birdie to slip to the second position. The frontrunner for gold after three days, Aditi’s slump also saw the team slip from first to fourth and end without a medal. “It wasn’t a good day. I played bad. There’s no way around saying it. But overall if I look at my four-day score it’s pretty good. Seventeen under; at the start of the week I would have taken that. You’re never totally happy unless you win. I’m sure someday I’ll look back and think it was a good week but silver is not better than gold,” said Aditi.

India’s other two players, Pranavi Urs (75) and Avani Prashanth (76), also had a rough day in the final round. Pranavi finished 13th and Avani was T-18.

In the men’s section, Anirban Lahiri (65-67-74-68) was T-12, while SSP Chawrasia (67-72-68-75) dropped to T-28. Khalin Joshi (70-69-69-73) was T-27 and Shubhankar Sharma (68-69-76-73) was 32nd.

The Indian men ended seventh as South Korea took gold. Thailand were second and Hong Kong third.

It was a difficult day for scoring as only six players shot under-par and only two went into the 60s in the women’s competition.