India poised to cross century of medals

Hangzhou, Oct 6: India are poised to celebrate a historic century of medals at the Asian Games after wrestlers bagged three medals, the sport of sepaktakraw added a historic bronze and the men’s hockey team reclaimed the gold to take the country’s tally to 95 here on Friday.
India are already assured of six medals in different disciplines — kabaddi (2), archery (3), hockey (1), badminton (1) and cricket (1) while four wrestlers are in contention on the penultimate day of the competition.
India had won 70 medals in the last edition in Indonesia where the country’s athletes won 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze medals to record their best-ever performance.
On the back of a splendid show by the shooters (22) and track and field athletes (29 medals), who contributed 51 medals, India had already surpassed its best-ever show on Wednesday.
The biggest surprise for the Indian contingent being a women’s table tennis team bronze by Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee, who humbled the mighty China in the semifinals. Parul Chaudhary’s sensational dash in the last 30 metres of the women’s 5000m and Javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena’s astonishing 86.77m throw wereamong the highlights of the Hangzhou Games. (PTI)