Asian Games: Mirabai's painful exit mars gold rush from squash, tennis teams

Abhay Singh wins from brink of defeat as India beat Pakistan to win squash team gold

India and Pakistan came up with a one-two in the men's squash team event after Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale opened India's account on Saturday by winning the gold in the mixed doubles tennis event and the 10m Air Pistol mixed team added the silver lining to the campaign, even as the likes of boxers Lovlina Borgohain and Preeti Pawar confirmed podium finishes after reaching their respective semifinals on Day 7 of the 19th Asian Games at Hangzhou.

Later in the day, Indian long-distance runners Kartik Kumar and Gulveer Singh bagged the silver and bronze medals respectively in the men's 10000m race, while in table tennis, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee assured India's maiden women's doubles medal in Asiad history.

With that India's tally surged to 10 gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze for a cumulative 38 medals, and placed fourth in the table behind China (216), Japan (104) and Korea (109).

However, the biggest heartbreak of the day came from the weightlifting arena, when Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu failed to return with a 49kg medal from the Asian Games, but more worryingly she seemed to have badly injured herself after her third Clean & Jerk attempt.

Squash: The Indian men's squash team clawed its way back in a tense final against Pakistan to win the gold medal with a 2-1 victory. This is India's 10th gold at Hangzhou 2023.

The veteran Saurav Ghosal and the young Abhay Singh were the stars of the show as India came from behind for the title.

In the first match, Mahesh Mangaonkar lost in straight games against Nasir Iqbal. After a competitive first game, which Mangaonkar 11-8, Nasir won the next two 11-3, 11-2 to give Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the tie.