Indian contingent bags 40 medals including 9 gold at 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
Ashgabat, September 29: Indian contingent has clinched a total of 40 medals including 9 gold, 12 silver and 19 bronze at the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan which concluded on Thursday. India finished at 11th position in the Games while host Turkmenistan topped the medals tally with 89 gold, 70 silver and 86 bronze, followed by China and Iran.
On a concluding day, Indians grabbed four medals, including a gold through tennis player Sumit Nagal. Nagal won the men's singles gold medal in the tennis event as he outplayed compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-1 6-1 in the all-Indian final. It was the second medal for Prashanth in the tournament, having won a gold in the men's doubles with reigning singles national champion Vishnu Vardhan
In chess, India collected two bronze - in men's blitz team and men's blitz team under-23. The pair of K Sasikiran and Surya Sekhar Ganguly lost to the Vietnam duo of Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son in the semifinals of men's blitz team event to settle for a bronze. In the men's blitz team under-23, the duo of Diptayan Ghosh and Vaibhav Suri lost to the Iran pair of Alireza Firouzja and Parham Maghsoodloo in the semifinals to be content with the bronze.
Earlier, Saurav Kothari won the gold in men's English billiards singles as he defeated Praprut Chaithanasakun of Thailand 3-1 in the final. In tennis, the mixed doubles pair of Vishnu Vardhan and Prarthana Thombare bagged a silver. They lost to the Thai duo of Nuttanon Kadchapanan and Nicha Lertpitaksinchai 7-5 4-6 2-6 in the final.
Meanwhile, Wrestlers added three bronze through Sandeep Tomar 61kg and Deepak's 86kg category men's freestyle and Pooja Dhanda's 58kg category women's freestyle medal. Sajan Prakash of India finished second with a silver medal in the Men's 100 metre butterfly event.
Divya Gurling Shilwant and Pratiksha Chandrakant Parhar bagged a bronze each in women's Alysh classic in 70 kg and 75 kg categories in the Belt Wrestling Discipline. Wrestler Keduovilie Zumu from Nagaland won a bronze medal in the 90 kg category of Kazakh Kuresh style belt wrestling.
However, India added one gold and two bronze medals. Ajay Kumar Saroj clinched the gold in men's 1500m race after clocking in at three minutes and 48.67 seconds. Neha Solanki and Jyoti picked a bronze in the +87kg category and -87kg category respectively of the women's kurash event.
Interestingly, more than 200 athletes in 15 sports disciplines are representing India in the Games, which is considered as the second biggest multi-sporting event of the continent after the Asian Games.