SPLASH IN SQUASH: India reclaim gold as Abhay Singh leads team’s march past Pakistan

Hangzhou, September 30

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Abhay Singh won the battle of attrition against Noor Zaman for the biggest prize of his career as the top-seeded India retained the Asian Games squash gold with an epic 2-1 win over Pakistan here today.

Before the tournament began, the Indian men’s team was expected to take the top spot after eight years, with its main challenge coming from Malaysia and Pakistan, the sport’s powerhouses in the yesteryears.

The Saurav Ghosal-led side managed to see off both the opponents on their way to glory. The win in the final against Pakistan came after the loss to the arch-rivals in the league stage.

Zaman, ranked 113, had got the better of world No. 69 Abhay in that contest earlier this week and for a major part of the match today, it looked like going in Pakistan’s favour again. As Mahesh Mangaonkar lost the opener to Nasir Iqbal (3-0) 8-11 2-11 3-11, Ghosal stepped up and equalised the tie with a 3-0 win (11-5 11-1 11-3). With the final locked at 1-1, the gold medal was going to be decided in the match between 25-year-old Abhay and teenager Zaman.

Zaman led 9-7 in the fourth game and had two match balls at 10-8 in the deciding game but the Indian managed to turn it around for a memorable win. The final scoreline read 3-2 (11-7 9-11 8-11 11-9 12-10). “We should have won three nights ago also as we were the better team. I am happy that we won today. No time for celebrations as have got matches tomorrow,” said Abhay.

The athleticism from players was remarkable as the contest involved breathtaking rallies and winners. The young and light-footed Zaman was guilty of making more unforced errors than Abhay.

Aditi closes in on historic gold

Aditi Ashok played a sensational third round of 11-under 61 to place herself in a commanding position to win a historic individual gold medal in golf at the Asian Games. Aditi, who is now seven shots clear of her closest rival, also carried the Indian women’s team to the top spot, where it holds a one-shot lead over Thailand. India has have never won a medal in women’s golf. Aditi’s 11-under was five shots better than the next best round of the day, and saw her get to 22-under. PTI

Paddling hopes of gold medal

Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee shocked world champion Chinese pair Chen Meng and Yidi Wang to enter the women’s doubles semifinals, securing a historic table tennis medal. India have never won a medal in the women’s doubles event at the Asiad. In the quarterfinals, Sutirtha and Ayhika won 11-5 11-5 5-11 11-9 against the world No. 2 duo. Earlier, Manika Batra produced an error-filled game to lose in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles. Manika went down against world No. 4 Yidi Wang of China 8-11 12-10 6-11 4-11 14-12 5-11. It ended India’s campaign in the singles. Men’s doubles pair of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar also bowed out in the last-8. They lost 8-11 11-7 10-12 11-6 9-11 to South Korea’s Woojin Jang and Jonghoon Lim. PTI

Silver for Ambala lad

Ambala’s Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS win silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event

Bopanna-Bhosale duo aces it

Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale bag gold in tennis mixed doubles, beating Chinese Taipei’s combo of Tsung-hao Huang and En-shuo Liang 2-6 6-3 10-4 in the title clash

Record 10-2 Pak rout in hockey

India hammer Pakistan 10-2 in their biggest-ever win over arch-rivals in a Pool A match for a semifinal berth

Live on Sony Sports

INDIANS IN ACTION

Archery

(6:30am onwards)

Compound and Recurve individual qualification

Athletics

(6:30am onwards)

Men’s shot put final: Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Sahib Singh; Men’s long jump final: Jeswin Aldrin, Sreeshankar Murali; Men’s 3000m steeplechase final: Avinash Sable; Women’s discus throw final: Seema Punia; Women’s 1,500m final: Harmilan Bains, Deeksha; Men’s 1,500m final: Jinson Johnson, Ajay Saroj; Women’s 100m hurdles final: Jyothi Yarraji

Badminton

Men’s team final:

India vs China 2:30pm

Boxing

(12:15pm onwards)

Women’s 50kg last-4: Nikhat Zareen; Women’s 60kg last-8: Jasmine Lamboria; Women’s 57kg last-8: Parveen Hooda

Chess

(12:30pm onwards)

Round 3 of team events

Equestrian

(5:30am onwards)

Eventing cross country team

and individual rounds

Hockey

Women’s Pool A:

India vs South Korea 6:15pm

Golf

(4am onwards)

Individual and team Round 4: Pranavi Urs, Avani Prashanth, Aditi Ashok, Anirban Lahiri, SSP Chawrasia, Khalin Joshi, Shubhankar Sharma

Shooting

(6:30am onwards)

Men’s and women’s trap

Squash

(8:30am onwards)

Doubles pool matches and men’s singles Rd of 32