Aichi-Nagoya (Japan): India’s Day 4 campaign at the Asian Games on Wednesday brought a historic breakthrough in soft tennis, while Manu Bhaker advanced to the women’s 10m air pistol final. India also secured a bronze in women’s skeet, with several athletes progressing in rowing, canoe sprint and table tennis.

Jay Meena secures historic soft tennis breakthrough

Jay Meena assured India of its first-ever Asian Games medal in soft tennis after defeating the Philippines’ Sherwin Nuguit 4-3 in the men’s singles quarter-final.

Meena recovered from a slow start to win the closely fought contest 0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5 and book his place in the semi-finals. All four semi-finalists are guaranteed a podium finish.

Manu Bhaker reaches 10m air pistol final

Double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker qualified for the women’s 10m air pistol individual final after finishing third in qualification with a score of 579-20x.

India narrowly missed out on the team podium in the same event. Bhaker, Suruchi Inder Singh and Esha Singh finished fourth after tying Vietnam on the overall score but losing the bronze on the inner-10 countback.

Suruchi finished 26th with 568, while Esha was 16th with 572.

India later added bronze in the women’s skeet team event through Raiza Dhillon, Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Maheshwari Chauhan.
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Strong showing in rowing and canoe sprint

Balraj Panwar qualified for the men’s single sculls final after finishing third in his heat and fourth overall. Satnam Singh and Salman Khan also progressed to the double sculls final after finishing second in their heat and fourth overall.

In canoe sprint, Megha Pradeep advanced to the women’s C1 200m semi-finals, while Parvathy Geetha and Phairembam Soniya Devi moved into the K2 500m semi-finals.

India also made progress in mixed doubles at the table tennis competition, with Manush Shah-Diya Chitale and Harmeet Desai-Yashaswini Ghorpade winning their respective Round 2 matches.
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India take on Iran in women’s kabaddi

India’s women’s kabaddi team is facing Iran in a Group A match on Wednesday.

The Indian men’s badminton team, which has already secured a podium finish, will face China in the semi-finals.

Athletics begins on Thursday

India’s athletics campaign will begin on Thursday, Day 5, with several medal contenders in action.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor will aim for a historic third consecutive Asian Games gold in the shot put, while Murali Sreeshankar will look to improve on his previous silver in the men’s long jump.

Avinash Sable will defend his 3000m steeplechase title, while Gulveer Singh is entered in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m events.

India won 29 athletics medals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games- six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze- and has set a target of 25-30 medals from the sport in Aichi-Nagoya.