Nagoya: The women’s hockey team’s perseverance earned it a long-awaited gold as well as Olympic qualification, while boxers, archers and wrestler Sujeet Kalkal also exceeded expectations as India surged into the Asian Games top-five with a brilliant six-gold haul on the penultimate day of competitions here on Friday.
India are now at the sole fifth position with 76 medals, including 16 gold, 25 silver and 35 bronze. The country has more medals than fourth-placed Uzbekistan (65) but lags in the gold count by four.
But India seems to be heading for a strong finish if the Friday show is any indication.
It was the end of a 44-year wait in women’s hockey when India defeated defending champions China 1-0 in the final to secure the gold as well as a direct qualification to the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Lalmremsiami’s 10th minute strike was enough to close the day as brilliantly as it started when the women’s recurve archery team clinched its maiden Asiad gold by shocking 10-time Olympic champions South Korea in the final.
The recurve trio of Ankita Bhakat, Kirti Sharma and 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod produced a composed performance under challenging conditions to stun the Koreans 5-3.
In between, Indian boxers were quite literally the ‘Lords of the Ring’ as Lovlina Borgohain (75kg), celebrating her 29th birthday, Parveen Hooda (65kg) and Ankush Panghal (80kg) outwitted higher-rated opponents to ensure three gold medals.
It was the best gold haul in Asiad boxing by India and can easily be considered the among the best performances of all time by the country’s boxing contingent.
Sujeet’s detremination on the wrestling mat was exemplary as he took the men’s 65kg category gold, defeating an Olympic champion en route to the title and erasing a massive 2-9 deficit in the final.
Adding to the joy were the silver medals claimed by mixed and men’s recurve archery teams and bronze medals from sailor Nethra Kumanan in women’s dinghy and the men’s quadrant team in sepaktakraw.
The late surge in the Games has bolstered India’s overall campaign that had looked patchy due to the under-performance in disciplines such as shooting and badminton. The latter was particularly disappointing for failing to deliver beyond a men’s team bronze this time.
The Hockey High
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Lalremsiami’s superb reverse-stick strike in the 10th minute gave India the lead, but it was goalkeeper Bichu Devi’s heroics and a defence that refused to yield that ultimately settled the women’s hockey final against China.
With the defending champions throwing everything at them, India absorbed wave after wave of pressure, putting their bodies on the line to protect their slender advantage and complete a memorable triumph.
For India, the victory delivered two long-awaited prizes — their first Asian Games women’s hockey gold since 1982 and direct qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics, which was a key target for coach Sjoerd Marijne’s side.
The final began an hour behind schedule after the team buses of both finalists were caught in a traffic snarl caused by an accident unrelated to either side.
But once the contest got underway, India made their mark early and then showed the resilience to withstand everything China threw at them.
The golden hat-trick in ring
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Birthday girl Lovlina, Parveen and Ankush produced contrasting yet stirring performances in their respective finals.
Lovlina and Parveen ended a 12-year wait by joining the legendary MC Mary Kom in the select group of Indian women boxers to have won Asian Games gold.
Lovlina defeated China’s Ziyi Bao 5-0 to upgrade the silver she had won at the last edition. Parveen then eked out a narrow 3-2 split-decision win over Paris Olympic bronze-medallist Chen Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei to claim her maiden Asian Games gold.
Ankush then became the first Indian male boxer since Amit Panghal in 2018 to win an Asian Games gold medal.
India thus finished atop the boxing medals tally, signing off with six medals, including three golds, the country’s best-ever performance at the Asian Games in terms of gold medals.
Besides the gold, Priya Ghanghas (60kg), Kapil Pokhariya (90kg) and Narender Berwal (+90kg) won bronze medals.
The country’s best overall haul came at the Guangzhou 2010 edition, where the contingent won nine medals — two gold, three silver and four bronze.
Sujeet’s brilliance
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Before the thrilling final in which Sujeet turned it around after being seven points behind, he outclassed Afghanistan’s Sayed Omar Zazai by technical superiority (13-3) to begin his campaign and produced a clinical performance against Iran’s Abbas Ebrahimzadehsavadkouhi in the quarterfinal, winning by technical superiority without losing a point.
His biggest win came in the last-four stage where he prevailed 3-3 on criteria against Japanese Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka.
In the final against Tajikistan’s Abdulmazhid Kudiev, the Indian was looked done after his rival raced to a 9-2 lead.
But using his tremendous speed and technical skills, Sujeet found a way to make a dramatic turnaround and prevail 10-9, scoring eight points in a row and holding off his rival.
Sujeet first reduced the deficit to 8-9 and with about 20 seconds left on the clock, he found a decisive take down and defended his one-point lead to emerge winner.
Archers on target
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The women’s recurve team’s stunning win over 10-time Olympic champions South Korea for a historic gold headlined the highly productive day for Indian archery competition where the men’s recurve and mixed recurve squads signed off with commendable silver medals.
The strong recurve performance comes after the compound archers completed a golden sweep in all the team competitions.
India have so far secured seven medals, including four gold, two silver and a bronze, in the archery event here.
The first medal of the day for the Indian contingent came via the trio of Ankitat, Kirti and Kumkum, who held their nerve in challenging windy conditions to outshoot the defending champions 5-3 (54-54, 56-56, 55-51, 54-54) and script a memorable triumph.
Kumkum then returned to the range with Dhiraj Bommadevara and combined for a silver medal in the mixed recurve team event, with the Indian duo going down 3-5 (34-38, 35-37, 37-36, 37-37) to China in the final.
After this, the men’s recurve combination of Bommadevara, Sanjay Bhoge and Neeraj Chauhan settled for a silver following a 1-5 loss (56-56, 50-57, 54-56) to Korea.
