Bahrain: Indian shuttlers and table tennis players began their campaign in the Youth Asian Games on a promising note with many of them advancing to the pre-quarterfinals even as the 3×3 basketball team suffered a quarterfinal loss to Iran here on Monday.
Shuttler Vennala Kalagotla in girls’ singles defeated Sri Lanka’s Nethmi Ratnayeke 23-21, 21-10 in the round of 32, while in boys’ singles Tankara Talasila beat Singapore’s Tee Kai 21-15, 21-15 to make it to the pre-quarters.
The mixed doubles pair of Param Choudhary and Aanya Bisht however lost to South Korea’s Na Seon Jae/Kim Bohye 8-21, 15-21 in the opening round.
In 3×3 basketball, Indian girls suffered a quarterfinal loss to Iran 15-10.
Indian boxers had a mixed day with 15-year-old Lanchenba Singh Moibungkhongbam beating the Philippines opponent Aamya Jefferson 4-1 in the 50kg girls’ quarterfinal, while Devendra Chaudhary lost his 75kg quarterfinal bout to China’s Guan Yiwen 5-0.
Udham Singh Raghav lost his 54kg quarterfinal bout to Ryusei Kitamura 3-1.
In boys’ cycling Individual Time Trial final, Aditya Jakhar finished sixth in 22:41.54 seconds, while in handball the Indian girls easily overcame Hong Kong-China 22-12 in Group A.
Indian paddlers enjoyed a good day with Sarthak Arya and Syndrela Das moving into the pre-quarters of mixed doubles with an 11-6, 11-3, 11-4 win against Maldives’ Nafiz Aishath and Mohamed Rafiu.
The other mixed doubles pair of Divyanshi Bhowmick and Ritvik Gupta beat Imran Muhammad and Amina Adam of Maldives 11-5, 11-5, 11-4 to enter the round of 16.
In boys’ singles, Sarthak Arya won his group match against John Marin of the Philippines
11-8, 11-8 , 7-11, 11-7, while in girls’ singles Hansini Mathan advanced to the pre-quarters with an 11-1, 11-8, 11-3 win against Amina Adam of Maldives.
Several Indians also entered the swimming finals with Nitishsai Harniath in boys’ 50m freestyle leading the way with a time of 23.71 seconds, while Vedant Tandale made it to the
boys’ 100m butterfly final clocking 56.31 seconds.
In boy’s 400m freestyle, Shashikumar Dhakshan qualified for the final with a time of 4:03.61 seconds, while in the girls’ section Aditi Satish Hegde timed 4:29.22 to secure a spot in the medal race.
Indian girls also qualified for the 4x100m freestyle relay final with a time of 4:01.01 seconds.
India has so far won 24 medals, including three gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze and are placed ninth on the medals table.
