Asian Games 2018: Day 14 round-up as India finish with their best ever medal haul

On the penultimate day of the 2018 Asian Games from the cities of Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia, a considerably less number of athletes were in action as we reached the fag end of the multi-sporting quadrennial mega-event.

The Indian contingent had equalled their best ever haul at the Asian Games when they notched the 65th medal on the thirteenth day as the women's hockey team won the silver medal after losing their final against the team from Japan.

This meant that India had a chance to further improve their haul from twelve years ago in Doha, Qatar and go on to win more medals on Day 14 of the 2018 Asiads.

The action of the day started on the high waters as the Indian duo of Prakant Sharma and Jamesboy Singh Oinam competed in the Men's Canoe Double (C2) 200 metres final. The pair was leading the standings after qualifying for the semifinal and went into the finals in a strong position. However, they were not able to maintain their momentum in the final race and ended up finishing in the ninth position as the Chinese team of Song Xiang and Qiang Li clinched the gold.

The second event in the waterways was the Women's Kayak Four (K4) 500 metres race as a team of four Indian women challenged the fierce waters for a shot at a podium finish.

They proved unsuccessful despite their stellar effort as they finished ninth in the final standings as the team from China won the gold medal.

The next piece of action early morning today saw the Indian Mixed Judo team take to the mat in their Round of 16 elimination clash against neighbouring country Nepal.

The Indian team comprised of six martial artists- Vijay Kumar Yadav, Harshdeep Singh Brar, Avtar Singh, Kalpana Devi Thoudam, Garima Choudhary, and Rajwinder Kaur who were up against the Nepalese team.

The Indian team was solid on the mat and won the contest with a 4-1 scoreline and moved into the quarterfinals and set up their clash with Kazakhstan. The Kazakhs proved to be an incredibly formidable opponent for the Indians as they lost four bouts in succession and crashed out of the Mixed Team competition.

After a couple of disappointments for the Indian contingent, it was time to rejoice as the Men's Pair Bridge competition was won by the pairing of Pranab Bardhan and Shibhnath Sarkar.

The two gentlemen had been in good form throughout the competition and had led the standings after the end of the first final that ended yesterday.

They stayed on top throughout the second stage of the final today and ended up with the gold medal finish as they beat competition from the pairs from China (378) and Indonesia (374) to win with 384 points in the end.

The other pair in the running for India, Sumit Mukherjee and Debabrata Majumder finished in ninth place with a score of 333 points.

In the Women’s Pair event, the Indian pairing of Hema Deora and Marianne Karmarkar finished in the seventh spot in the final with a total score of 349 points.

Two Indian teams were a part of the Mixed Pair event and the team of Bachiraju Satyanarayana and Kiran Nadar finished fifth whereas the pair of Rajeev Khandelwal and Himani Khandelwal ended up seventh out of the twelve pairs in contention.

The glory run continued for India as the last man standing for the nation in the boxing competitions, Amit Panghal managed to defeat the Olympic champion from Uzbekistan, Hasanboy Dusmatov.

In the bout filled with intense action, the judges had a tough time to decide the winner but ultimately it was Amit who had his hands raised by the referee as India got their second gold medal of the day and the only one from boxing at the Asian Games this time around.

Next up, we had the women's squash team take on Hong Kong, China in the gold medal match for a chance at a historic gold medal at the Asiads.

The team full of stars like Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Joshna Chinappa, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Tanvi Khanna had only lost one match in their group stage fixtures and it was against their opponents in the finals, Hong Kong, China.

They had defeated the famed Malaysian side in the semifinals with a comprehensive 2-0 win. Sunanya Kuruvilla lost the first match of the tie and Hong Kong, China had a strong advantage going into the next match.

Joshna Chinappa was up against Annie Au and lost out in a tough match as the Indian team lost 0-2 to win the silver medal in the end. This was India's first silver medal in squash at the 2018 Asian Games after a streak of four bronze medals so far - Men's Singles (Saurav Ghoshal), Women's Singles (Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik) and Men's Team events.

The Men's Diving event of 10 metres platform had the youngster Siddharth Bajrang Pardeshi in action and he ended up in the ninth place overall after six dives with a score of 375.30 points.

The final action of the day for the Indian contingent saw the Men's hockey team take on their fierce rivals from across the border, Pakistan in the bronze medal playoff match. The match started on a bright note for India as they took a quick lead through Akashdeep Singh who scored into the top corner of the Pakistani goal.

The halftime saw India lead 1-0 after careful play from both the sides in the first half. The second half started with a bang for India as Harmanpreet Singh was on target to put India into a comfortable two-goal lead. However, Pakistan cut it down to one later in the match through Atiq but India held on to the lead and clinched the bronze medal.

The Indian contingent ended with their best ever tally at the Asian Games medal with 69 medals (15 Gold, 24 Silver and 30 Bronze).