Asian Games 2018:Sprinter Hima Das, Shooter Anish Bhanwala in action today

Athletics events are beginning today, with gold medals at stake for India in various track and field categories. Sprinter Hima Das, who became the first Indian to win a Gold medal in a track event at the World Junior Athletics Championships recently, will feature in the Women's 400 metres qualification along with Nirmala Sheoran. 

Muhammad Anas and Rajiv Arokia will be seen in action in the Men's section. Dutee Chand will also look to book a place in the Women's 100 metres Finals. Sanjivani Jadhav and Suriya Loganathan will be vying for top honours in the Women's 10,000 metres Final, with Shot Putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Hammer Thrower Sarita Romit Singh also playing for Gold medals.

In Shooting, 15-year old Anish Bhanwala and Shivam Shukla are in action in the Qualification of Men's 25 metres Rapid Fire Pistol category. Qualifications of Men's and Women's Skeet are also underway.

In Boxing, Vikas Krishan and Amit Panghal are among the five Indian pugilists who will begin their campaigns today. Weightlifter Vikas Thakur will also be in action.In Squash, Saurav Ghoshal, Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa, who are assured of Bronze medals, will play their semi-final matches.

Shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will be eying to seal a place in the Singles quarterfinals, with Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy set to play their Women's Doubles last-8 match. In Women's Hockey, India will take on South Korea in their third Pool-B match. 

Among the disappointments, kabaddi once again formed the core of India's woes.

Like its male counterpart, the defending champion Indian women's team too lost to Iran, albeit in the final, to collect a better medal compared to men, who ended with a bronze yesterday.

Aadil Bedi kept India in the medal hunt in golf, holding the third position individually and helping the team be second at the halfway mark. 

The men's hockey team remained unbeaten, mauling Japan 8-0 in its third preliminary match to stay on course for an expected gold and Olympic qualification. 

But then in Jakarta, it was another



day of disbelief for Indian kabaddi as Iran became their nightmare for the second day running. This time, it was the women at the receiving end in an exciting final.

There were shocked faces in the Indian camp once again as the country came to terms with Iran's rise as the new powerhouse of kabaddi, a medal in which was taken for granted at the Asiad every four years.

Not to mention the continuing poor show in archery, where the ones in recurve signed off without medals in the individual events. Those in compound are still in fray in individual competitions but aren't exactly the favourites going by current form.

There was bad news in badminton with top shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy getting knocked out of the Games after shock defeats in the second round ended India's campaign in the men's singles competition.

After Srikanth lost 21-23 19-21 to Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong, Prannoy followed suit going down 12-21 21-15 15-21 to Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

In gymnastics, Dipa Karmakar finished fifth in balancing beam, her jittery comeback from a knee injury not quite going as planned at least at the ongoing Games here.

The swimmers signed off without a medal, the only heartening aspect of the campaign being Srihari Natraj and Virdhawal Khade bettering a few national marks.

The boxers began their campaign too and it was day of mixed results for them.

Veteran Manoj Kumar (69kg) eased into the pre-quarters but Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Gaurav Solanki (52kg) went out with a stunning opening-round loss.

Manoj prevailed 5-0 over Bhutan's Sangay Wangdi to make the last-16 stage and set up a clash with Kyrgyzstan's Abdurakhman Abdurakhmanov. 

However, Solanki was beaten in a unanimous verdict by Japan's Ryomei Tanaka, the 21-year-old India's defence all over the place against the southpaw.

India is currently 8th in the medals tally with 6 Gold, 5 Silver and 14 Bronze. China, Japan and South Korea continue to be the top three.