Dipa Karmakar withdrew from competition in tears after the career-threatening knee injury that she had sustained flared up on Wednesday
Jakarta/Palembang: Day 4 at the Asian Games for India on Wednesday was headlined by 25-year-old Rahi Sarnobat, who struck gold in the 25m air pistol event. She became the first Indian woman to bag a gold medal in shooting at the continental showpiece event.
The Indian men's hockey team rewrote history when it annihilated Hong Kong by a margin of 26-0. It was India's biggest-ever victory in international hockey in the men's section and it eclipsed an 86-year-old record.
In wushu, India finished Day 4 with four bronze medals. Naorem Roshibina Devi, Narender Grewal, Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh and Santosh Kumar lost their semi-finals in the sanda event in their respective weight categories, but were assured of bronze medals once they had entered the semi-finals.
This was India's best haul in wushu at the Asian Games. The nation had won two bronze medals in the last edition in Incheon in 2014.
However, in between there was the terrible news of star gymnast and a major medal hope for India, Dipa Karmakar, withdrawing from competition in tears after the career-threatening knee injury that she had sustained flared up on Wednesday.
"...there was risk of a dangerous injury, so she could not be her best. We will give her rest from the team event but she will definitely do well in (balancing) beam finals," Dipa's coach Bisweswar Nandi told PTI.
In tennis, India are assured of at least two medals as Ankita Raina and the top-seeded doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan moved into the semi-finals. While world number 189 Raina defeated Hong Kong's Eudice Chong 6-4 6-1, Bopanna and Sharan beat the seasoned duo of Yang Hsieh and Yang Tsung-Hua of Chinese Taipei.
Second seed in men's singles, Ramkumar Ramathan, however, lost in the Round of 16 to Jurabek Karimov of Uzbekistan. India's challenge ended in both men's and women's doubles, but in mixed doubles, Bopanna and Raina kept the Indian hopes up by entering the quarter-finals.
Indian rowers also continued to impress, qualifying for the final round in three more events. Dattu Bhokanal had moved to the men's single sculls final round, while Sanjukta Dung Dung had qualified for the final round in the women's pair event on Tuesday. The men's lightweight four team had also made it to the title round on Tuesday.
The Indian women's compound archery qualified for the quarter-finals, but were pushed to the second place by North Korea in the ranking round.
Elsewhere, India wrapped up its campaign in wrestling on Wednesday, but it was not on a high note as Greco-Roman grappler Harpreet Singh lost his bronze medal match 3-6 to Kazakhstan's Azamat Kustubayev. India has had a good haul in wrestling — one of its strong areas — at the current Asian Games, having won two golds and a bronze.
In teakwondo, India's campaign ended in the men's section as Navjeet Maan crashed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the 80kg match.
There wasn't any good news from the swimming pool for India as Sandeep Sejwal, Sajan Prakash and Avinash Mani could not qualify for the final despite topping their respective heats.
India's men's volleyball team lost 0-3 to Qatar in their preliminary Pool F match.
With Agency inputs
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