Asian Games: Shooters propel India to fourth spot in medal tally

Shooters continued to enrich India's medal tally that swelled to 33 (8 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze) with the men's 50m rifle 3 positions team of Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Suresh Kusale and Akhil Sheoran shattering a world record to clinch the gold medal before the women's 10m Air Pistol team of Palak, Esha Singh and Divya Thadigol, and the men's doubles tennis team added the silver lining to the campaign on Day 6 of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Later in the day, reigning World and CWG champion, Nikhat Zareen rode on a dominant RSC win over Jordan's Hanan Nassar to advance to the semifinals of the women's 50kg boxing and confirm a medal, and more importantly seal her place at the 2024 Paris Olympics next year.

The Indian women's squash team comprising Joshana Chinappa, Tanvi Khanna, and Anahat Singh settled for bronze after losing 1-2 in the semi-final to Hong Kong. Themen's team set up a gold medal clash with Pakistan, after defeating defending champions Malaysia 2-0 in the semifinal. Sourav Ghosal and Abhay Singh registered identical 3-1 wins over Eain Yow and Muhammad Addeen Idrakie Bin Bahtiar, respectively to make it to the final.

In the evening session, shot-putter Kiran Baliyan opened athletics account at the 19th Asian Games with a bronze in women's shot-put event. With that, India's count rose to 8 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze for a cumulative 33 for the fourth spot in the medal tally behind the top three China (105 gold, 63 silver, 32 bronze), Japan (27 gold, 35 silver, 37 bronze) and Korea (26 gold, 28 silver, 48 bronze).

It was the shooting contingent that ensured India's medal rush on Friday with the men's 50m rifle 3P team of Aishwary, Swapnil and Akhil shattering the world record, previously held by the United States of America, with 1769 points en-route to the gold.

China took silver while Korea bagged bronze.

Aishwary also pocketed a silver in men's 50m Rifle 3 Position event after finishing with a score of 459.7, while the other Indian in fray, Swapnil Kusale finished a heartbreaking 4th. China's Linshu Du took the gold with a Games Record of 460.6.