#609 Tajinderpal Singh Noor SHOTput Gold performance was as GOOD as it gets; Won with games record of 20.75m throw; Saurav, Dipika and Joshna lose in Squash SF but win bronze; 2 Bridge teams assured of medal after reaching SF; Mohammed Anas, Hima Das and Rajiv Arora move to 400m finals;Indian women's hockey team outclass Korea; PV Sindhu and Saina move to singles QF in badminton; Badminton doubles team, Archery and Shooters disappoint; City held in EPL by Wolves; Barca win in La Liga and more...:-)
On day 7 of Asian games, Indian archers disappointed again. They reached QF but got humiliated there. Archery has been biggest underachievers in this Asian games. No medals so far. Shooting also didn’t get any medals. In Squash, 3 medals was assured. Dipika, Joshna and Saurav all had reached finals. Saurav was defending champion and same was expected of him when he lead 2-0 set but allowed his HK opponent to come back and win 2-3. Other 2 ladies also lost. So it was 3 bronze in Squash singles. Hope they get more medals and hopefully silver or gold in doubles. In Bridge, India reached SF in 2 events and were assured of 2 medals. Vikas Thakur who had won silver in weightlifting in CWG failed to get any medal. In badminton, Saina and Sindhu won in straight sets to reach QF. They are 1 win away from a certain medal. Would be interesting to see if they clash in finals which would be great for India !! India 2 men’s doubles teams in round of 16 and one women’s doubles team in QF. Unfortunately all lost. 2 men’s team had their chances which went to 3 sets. Commonwealth games silver medalist Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 17-21, 21-19, 21-17 to Korea. It was 17-17 in final set but India lost 4 points in a row. In other men’s doubles round of 16 Sumeeth and Manu had 3 match points in final set but lost 23-25 in final set. It has been shocking set of results from Badminton in Asian games. Saina and Sindhu need to save the day again for India.
When India had a poor day, some good news later in the day brought smile to Indian fans. It started with Mohammed Anas and Rajiv Arora qualifying for Men’s 400m finals. Mohammed Anus in fact topped in timing in SF with 45.3s. Hima Das also qualified for finals in 400m. Indian women’s hockey team beat fancied Korean team 4-1. This is easily their best match in recent times. They are almost assured of SF spot with this win. India took lead early in first half but Korea levelled shortly after that. It was 1-1 till last quarter. That’s when Gurjit scored 2 goals to settle the match.
News of the day came in Shot Put though. Tajinderpal Singh Noor broke Games record when he threw it to a distance of 20.75m. Tajnderpal has issues in personal front as his father is battling with cancer. He never allowed that to distract him. Infact he looked more focused than ever. He told later that he wanted to reach 21m mark and never focused on medal which is a great way to look at things. His win was so comprehensive that Silver medalist just crossed 19.52m. Tajinderpal need to cross 21.8m-22m if he need to be in contention for Olympic medal and he is aware of that. With this kind of dedication, there is hope from Tajinderpal in Tokyo Olympics.
In La Liga, Barcelona beat Valladolid 1-0. It was a poor football pitch where grass was coming off the ground. It was not a ground which suited for such high profile match to be played. Athletico Madrid beat Rayo Vallecano 1-0. In EPL, City were held to a 1-1 draw by gritty Wolves. City had their chances but Wolves held on. Leicester City beat Southampton 2-1. Liverpool beat Brighton 1-0 to go to top of leaderboard with 9 points. They are 2 points ahead of City. Arsenal won their first game of this season’s EPL by beating West Ham 3-1.