NEW DELHI: India opened their medal account at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with two silver medals on Sunday, both coming in the women’s 10m air rifle competition, as Elavenil Valarivan emerged as the standout performer on a day that also brought assured medals, cricket and hockey victories and strong starts in badminton and table tennis.Valarivan first combined with Sonam Uttam Maskar and Games debutant Vidarsa Vinod to win silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event before adding an individual silver later in the day.The 27-year-old’s individual medal was particularly significant after she had gone without a podium finish in her previous two Asian Games appearances. She shot 252.4 in the final to finish 0.6 points behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who claimed gold with an Asian Games record 253.0. South Korea’s Ban Hyojin won bronze with 230.4.For Valarivan, it was a day of both achievement and a near-miss. She had led for much of the final before three loose shots towards the end allowed Taichi to turn the contest around.India’s two shooting silvers provided an encouraging start to a discipline that had produced a record 22 medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Suchika Tariyal (ANI Photo)
Suchika assures historic MMA medal
While shooting provided India’s first medals, Suchika Tariyal ensured another podium finish.The 36-year-old defeated Mongolia’s Altanchimeg Baigalmaa 2-0 in the women’s traditional 60kg MMA quarterfinal to enter the semifinals and assure India of at least a bronze medal.The result assumes added significance with MMA making its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya. Tariyal, who has previously competed in judo, switched to MMA in 2024 and went on to win gold at the first two MMA-SFI National Championships.She also won bronze at the third and fourth Asian Mixed Martial Arts Championships earlier this year.
Shafali Verma (PTI Photo)
Shafali century takes India into cricket final
India’s women cricketers moved another step closer to defending their Asian Games title with a commanding 114-run victory over Bangladesh in the semifinal.Shafali Verma was the star, smashing her maiden T20I century off just 49 balls as India posted 195/4 after opting to bat. Smriti Mandhana contributed 37, while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur scored 40 off 33 balls.India’s bowlers then bundled Bangladesh out for just 81 in 15.4 overs, with Nandani Sharma and Deepti Sharma claiming three wickets each.The victory secured India a place in Tuesday’s final, where they will face Sri Lanka in a repeat of the previous edition’s gold-medal clash. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan in the other semifinal.
India’s goal rush in hockey
India’s men’s and women’s hockey teams made emphatic starts to their respective campaigns, producing a combined 32 goals in their opening pool matches.The women began with a stunning 19-0 win over Uzbekistan, with Deepika Sehrawat scoring a remarkable eight goals.The men followed it up with a 13-1 demolition of Indonesia. Dilpreet Singh led the scoring with four goals, while India dominated virtually throughout the contest.The two victories provided early evidence of India’s ambitions in the hockey competitions and gave both teams a strong start to their Asian Games campaigns.
Deepika Sehrawat (Image credit: Hockey India)
Shuttlers make winning start
India swept Kazakhstan 3-0 in the women’s team badminton event, with PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda and Tanvi Sharma all winning their respective singles matches.Sindhu opened with a straight-game victory before Hooda and Tanvi completed the sweep. India did not drop a game in the tie and moved into the quarterfinals, where they will face hosts Japan.The result provided a strong start for a team featuring a blend of experience and youth, with Sindhu leading the charge alongside Hooda and Tanvi.
Table tennis: women fight back, men suffer setback
India’s table tennis teams experienced contrasting fortunes on Day 1.Both the women’s and men’s teams began their campaigns with identical 3-0 victories over Indonesia in their respective Group F openers.The women then produced one of the day’s notable comebacks, recovering from 1-2 down to beat Singapore 3-2. Yashaswini Ghorpade won the deciding fifth match against Loy Ming, while Sreeja Akula had earlier levelled the contest at 2-2.The men, however, suffered a setback in their second group match, losing 0-3 to Iran. Manush Shah, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai all lost their respective matches.Both Indian teams will next face Pakistan.
India’s Quimcy Joaquim Dsouza (AP Photo)
Heartbreak for Quimcy in teqball
India’s Quimcy D’Souza came agonisingly close to securing a historic medal in teqball but finished without a podium after losing two bronze-medal matches within five minutes of each other.The 24-year-old pushed Japan’s world No. 7 Yuina Sakamoto to the limit in the women’s singles bronze-medal match before losing 11-12, 11-12.Barely five minutes later, she returned to the arena alongside Mohamed Anas Beg for the mixed doubles bronze-medal match. The Indian pair lost 0-2 to Vietnam’s Hoang Minh Tan Nguyen and Gia Ngih Trinh, going down 9-12, 6-12.
Das finishes sixth, other swimmers miss finals
Rishabh Das finished sixth in the men’s 100m backstroke final after clocking 54.77 seconds. China’s Jiayu Xu won gold with a Games Record 51.98, while Japan’s Hidekazu Takehara and South Korea’s Juho Lee took silver and bronze respectively.Earlier, Benediction Beniston and Akash Mani failed to progress from the men’s 100m freestyle heats after finishing 12th and 23rd respectively.
Wushu brings mixed results
Suraj Singh Mayanglambam finished 11th in the men’s changquan final with 9.683 points after competing in a 21-athlete field.India also suffered two Round of 16 exits in Sanda. Aparna lost 0-2 to Iran’s Sogand Sinkaeichetan in the women’s 52kg category, while Vikrant Baliyan went down 0-2 to Iran’s Soheil Mousavi in the men’s 75kg category.There was further disappointment in MMA after Varun Sanyal was declared medically unfit to compete following an incident during a sauna session at his cruise-ship accommodation.
A medal-winning start with more opportunities ahead
By the end of Day 1, India had two confirmed medals — both silver — through Valarivan and the women’s 10m air rifle team. Suchika Tariyal had assured another medal in MMA, while the women’s cricket team had secured a place in the gold-medal match.The day also delivered emphatic hockey victories, a clean sweep in women’s badminton and a comeback win in table tennis, although the men’s paddlers and some individual competitors endured setbacks.For India, therefore, the opening day brought a mixture of medals, near-misses and promising starts — with several opportunities still ahead as the Aichi-Nagoya Games gather pace.
