Hangzhou, Oct 2: Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee crashed to a narrow defeat in the table tennis women’s doubles semifinal and had to settle for bronze on Day 9 of the ongoing Asian Games 2023, in Hangzhou on Monday.
The semifinal match went down to the wire as North Korea’s Suyong Cha, Sugyong Pak sealed a narrow 4-3 (11-7 8-11 11-7 8-11 9-11 11-5 2-11) victory. The Indians ran out of the steam in the decider, losing 2-11 in Game 7.
Meanwhile, India bagged two surprise rolling skating bronze medals. The Indian team consisting of Sanjana Bhatuka, Karthika Jagadeeswaran, Heeral Sadhu and Aaratju Kastury clinched a third-placed finish in women’s speed skating 3000m relay team event. India made it back-to-back roller skating bronze as the men’s team came 3rd in the 3000m relay final.
Meanwhile in athletics, Tejaswin Shankar is in contention for a medal in men’s decathlon but has slipped out of the top-three. Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath was in hot form in his men’s 800m heat and finished first to qualify for the final. He will be joined by Krishnan Kumar, who also qualified. Also, Vithya Ramraj advanced to the women’s 400m hurdles final. In archery, India defeated Hong Kong, China to enter the quarterfinal of men’s recurve team event and also went to the quarterfinal of the women’s recurve team event.
Vithya Ramraj had a memorable outing at the Asian Games on Monday as the young sprinter equalled the legendary P T Usha’s national record in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Ramraj topped the heat with a personal best effort of 55.42s to top her heat and directly qualify for the final.
But what made it extra special for Ramraj was equalling Usha’s national record, set way back in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Tejaswin Shankar produced a season best effort in shot put to be placed fifth in the overall standings with two events left in the men’s decathlon.
The 24-year-old, who had won a bronze at the Commonwealth Games in high jump last year, came up with an effort of 13.39m in shot put to be at the fifth place.
He also produced a personal best effort of 11.12m to register a fourth place finish in the 100m race, while topping the standings in long jump with an effort of 7.37m.