Equestrian Anush Agarwalla won India’s first-ever individual medal in the dressage competition at the Asian Games here on Thursday. Astride Etro, Agarwalla scored 73.030 to finish third and claim his second medal of the Asian Games.
India have won 13 medals in the Asian Games equestrian event since 1951, including the dressage team gold here on Tuesday. But the country had never won an individual medal in dressage in the past.
Bin Mahamad Fathil Mohd Qabil Ambak of Malaysia won the gold with a total score of 75.780, while Jacqueline Wing Ying Siu of Hong Kong bagged the silver scoring 73.450.
The other Indian in fray, Hriday Vipul Chheda, who topped the qualifying on Wednesday, was eliminated after blood was spotted on the left foreleg of his horse Chemxpro Emerald and he did not feature in the medal competition.
On Tuesday, Agarwalla had teamed up with Chheda, Divyakriti Singh and Sudipti Hajela to win the dressage team gold after 41 years.
“I hope these medals give a boost to the equestrian sports in India,” the 23-year-old Agarwalla, a former Calcutta resident and a La Martiniere alumnus, said.
Medals assured
The Indian tennis camp had something to cheer with Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni reaching the men’s doubles gold medal round and the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale also assuring itself of a medal.
Ramkumar and Myneni downed the gutsy Korean pair of Seongchan Hong and Soonwoo Kwon 6-1, 6-7(8), 10-0 to move to the final.
The second-seeded Bopanna-Bhosale pair moved to the mixed doubles semi-finals with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Kazakhstan’s Zhibek Kulambayeva and Grigoriy Lomakin.
Heartbreak
World Championships bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria (51kg)’s campaign ended in heartbreak as he bowed out with a pre-quarter final loss even as Nishant Dev and Jaismine Lamboria advanced to the last eight.
Women sail
The India women’s badminton team thrashed Mongolia 3-0 to sail into the quarter finals of the team championships. Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu started the proceedings with a 21-3, 21-3 win over Myagmartseren Ganbaatar in the first singles. Then Ashmita Chaliha dished out a 21-2, 21-3 win over Kherlen Darkhanbaatar before Anupama Upadhyaya claimed another dominating 21-0, 21-2 win against Khulangoo Baatar in the third singles.
Squash medal
The India women’s squash team assured themselves of at least a bronze medal despite being blanked 0-3 by Malaysia in their final pool B match. Malaysia and India took the top two spots in their pool to make the semi-finals which guarantee them at least a bronze.
Paddlers advance
Paddlers Manika Batra, Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan entered the pre-quarter finals.
Sharath defeated Mohammed Shaffan Ismail of Maldives 11-9, 11-2, 11-7, 11-7. Sathiyan got the better of Turki Lafi Almutairi of Saudi Arabia 11-5, 11-6, 11-9, 11-2. Manika blanked Nabita Shresthta of Nepal 11-5, 11-4, 11-3, 11-2.
In the women’s doubles, Sutirtha Mukherjee teamed up with Ayhika Mukherjee to seal their place in the pre-quarters after defeating Kazakhstan 3-0.
