Asian Games 2018: Day 8 round-up as Athletes make merry, boxers crash out and historic medals from the Equestrian events

The eighth day of the 2018 Asian Games came to a close with the Indian contingent adding seven more medals to the overall tally, taking India's tally to 36 medals with the three medals on the day coming from the field of athletics, two historic medals from Equestrian events and two bronze medals from the Bridge events.

The Indian athletes brought home a shower of medals for India from the Athletics field. Hima Das clinched the silver medal for her 50.79s attempt at the women's 400m event while her men's compatriot, Muhammed Anas too won the silver medal after he finished with a time of 45.69s in the men's 400m event.

In the women's 100m final, Dutee Chand ran her heart out as she finished second, with a fantastic run of 11.32s to add on to the medals tally. The athletics field had its fair share of controversies when Lakshmanan Govindan, who clinched the bronze medal in the 10,000m event after clocking 29:44:91 minutes was spotted stepping over the end line of the track that saw him being disqualified. However, it is learned that a complaint has been lodged in order to reverse the decision.

In other news, Anu Raghavan clocked 56.77s and just managed to pip Bahrain's Aminat Jamal to qualify for the finals of the Women's 400m hurdles

Archery saw the men's and women's compound team progressing to the summit clash round. In the men's compound team event, the team comprising of Rajat Chauhan, Aman Saini and Abhishek Verma combined to overcome some intense moments and seal a spot in the finals with a 231-227 win over the Chinese Taipei in the semifinals for the second successive edition, having qualified for the finals and also winning it in Incheon 2014.

The women's team of Muskan Kirar, Madhumita Kumari, and Jyoti Surekha Vennam battled all the way till the final round in the semifinals as they emerged victorious by a 229-224 against hosts Indonesia to set up a finals clash against South Korea.

Elsewhere, Saina Nehwal put in an inspired performance in the Badminton women's quarterfinals to come back from an eight-point deficit and win against Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon 21-18, 21-16 while compatriot PV Sindhu overcame a minor stumble in the second set to win 21-11, 16-21, 21-14 against Thailand's Jindapol Nitchaon. With the wins, Sindhu and Saina will both feature in the semi-finals, with at least a bronze medal confirmed for both the shuttlers.

In Boxing, Sarjubala Devi was the only boxer to progress to the quarterfinals when she won 5-0 against Tajikistan's Ghaforova Madina. Manoj Kumar crashed out of the competition after losing 0-5 to Kyrgystan's Abdurakhmanov in the Men's Welter (69kg) quarterfinals while in the Men's Light (60kg) category, Shiva Thapa lost his bout when the referee opted to stop the contest.

Bridge witnessed the Indian team taking part in three semifinals. The men's team and the mixed team finished with the bronze medal, capping off a good outing for the Indian team.

In Canoe/Kayak sprint, the India women's team finished seventh in the semifinals of the Canoe TBR 500m event while the men's team finished a lowly tenth on the charts.

It was a moment of history in the making as the individual jumping final of Equestrian saw India's Mirza Fouaad finishing with the silver medal while compatriots Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Malik and Jitender Singh finished 10th, 16th, and 20th respectively and in combination, the Indian team won the silver medal as well.

Golf men's category saw Aadil Bedi, Rayhan Thomas finish on 13th place with a score of -2 while Kshitij Naveed finished 23rd and Hari Mohan Singh finished in 53rd place. The men's team comprising of the aforementioned players finished 7th overall.

The Indian women's team finished 8th overall with a score of +3 while individually, Ridhima Dilawari finished 17th, Sifat Sagoo and Diksha Dagar finished in 22nd place.

Meanwhile, the men's Handball team lost 31-35 to the Chinese Taipei in the men's main round of Group 3.

Sailing action continued on the eighth day as Ashok Thakkar Varun/Chengappa Ganapathy Kelapanda finished the eighth race on third place while the duo of Varsha G/Sweta S finished the eighth race sitting pretty in second place.

In the Laser Radial race, N Kumanan finished the seventh race on 5th position while in the Open Laser 4.7 event, G Bairagi finished the seventh race on the 3rd place while H Tomar was on 7th place.

Overall, at the end of the day and the eighth race, India stood in the last place in the Mixed RS One event.

The Men's team from Group B of Sepaktakraw fell to the guile of Malaysia (0-2) but then came back strong to defeat China 2-1 in their final group stage game of the day.

It was an off-day for the Shooting contingent as the second day of the Women's skeet qualifiers saw Ganemat Sekhon finishing 10th while Rashmi Rathore ended in 12th position. Similar was the case of the men's category as Sheeraz Sheikh finished 13th while Angad Vir Singh ended his campaign on 14th place.

Table Tennis was contested for the first time in this edition of the Asian Games and India was represented by the men's and women's team. The eves got off the right foot, opening their Group A campaign with a dominating 3-0 win over Qatar and followed it up with another 3-0win over China. In their next game against Iran, the Indians won the opening set and dropped the second but kept their nerve to win two more games and the match.

The men's team started in a similar note, claiming a dominating 3 - 0 win over the United Arab Emirates while in their next match, a thrilling encounter against the Chinese Taipei ensured that the Indian men were given a run for their money and a reality check as they lost 2-3.

In the men's Volleyball category, the Indian men were dealt with a huge challenge as Japan put in a strong show to win 2-1 and inflict the Men in Blue's first loss in the tournament.

One of the biggest positives for India on the day was the form of the men's Hockey team, which registered its fourth victory in a row when the Men in Blue won 5-3 through goals from Akashdeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Manpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh and substitute Chinglensana Singh and with this win, India now has a firm grasp on the position at the top of the table.

Overall, India managed to perform better than expected and with a lot more competitions to come, one can expect the Indians to put their best foot forward and add to the medal tally.