Asian Games: India to start table-tennis campaign on day three; eye on progress in rowing, sailing, volleyball

HANGZHOU: A lot of exciting action from rowing, sailing and volleyball is ahead for India on the third day of the ongoing Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou while a star-studded table tennis contingent will begin its journey with hopes of capturing its first-ever gold.

The action will start from sailing at 8:30 IST, with multiple races scheduled in categories like Men's Kite - IKA Formula Kite, Men's Dinghy - ILCA7 Race, Men's skiff, Men's windsurfer RS:X, women's single dinghy, women's windsurfing IQFOIL etc. A lot of Indian competitors will be eyeing progress in their respective categories.

In the men's windsurfing IQFOIL event, Jerome Kumar Savarimuthu finished the day at the seventh spot. He earned 27 points in four races. He finished the first race at eighth position with eight points, fifth spot with five points in race two, sixth position with six points in race three and eighth with eight points in race four.

In the Men's Skiff event, the pair of KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar finished fifth with a total of 15 points in three races. They finished eighth with eight points in race one, third spot with three points in race two and fourth spot with four points in race three. In the women's skiff, the pair of Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma finished the first day at third position with 11 points in three races.

In the first race, they finished at sixth spot with six points, in the second they finished second with two race points and in the race three, they finished third with three race points. The mixed dinghy pair of Sudhanshu Shekhar and Preeti Kongara finished the first day at fourth position with eight points in two races. In both races, they finished at the fourth spot with four race points. In the boy's dinghy competition, Adhvait Menon concluded the first day at the sixth spot, with 11 points in two races.

In the first race, he finished fifth with five race points, followed by a sixth-place finish with six race points. In the girls' dinghy competition, Neha Thakur concluded the day at third position with six points from two races. In both races, he finished at third spot with three race points.

The men's kite event saw Chithresh Tatha finish at the seventh spot with 27 points in four races. In the first race, he finished at sixth spot with six race points, followed by a seventh-place finish with seven race points in the next three races. In the women's dinghy event, Nethra Kumanan finished in the third position on day one, with six points in two races.

In the first race, she finished at second with two race points and at fourth spot in the second race with four race points. Part of the mixed multihull event, Indar Doiphode and Ramya Saravanan finished the first day with eight points in two races. In the first race, they earned the third-place finish with three race points, then a second-place finish with two race points with two race points and at third position with three race points.

Eabad Ali finished the day in the men's windsurfer event with 17 points out of 3 races. He had a third-place finish in race one with three race points and a seventh-place finish in the next two races with seven race points each. In the men's dinghy ILCA7 event, Vishnu Saravanan gained six points in two races. In the first race, he finished first with one point and then fifth in the next race with five race points. He finished the day at the second spot overall.

Finally, in the women's windsurfer, Ishwariya Ganesan got 11 points in three races. She finished in third spot in her first two races with three race points each.But she could not finish her last race, ending the day at third position overall.

The sailing events will conclude on September 27.

India has won 20 medals at the event, with one gold and seven silver and 12 bronze.

TABLE TENNIS

At 9:30 AM, the Indian men's table tennis team will be playing its first match against Yemen. This will be followed by another match against Singapore at 3:30 PM. The women's table tennis team will also face off against 1:30 PM.

-Men’s team: Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah

-Women’s team: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Murkherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Diya Chitale To this day, India has secured only two bronze medals in this sport at the continental level.

VOLLEYBALL

The Indian volleyball team will also aim to continue with its winning momentum against Chinese Taipei from 12 PM.

In their last outing, India claimed a 3-2 victory in a dramatic fashion as they edged past South Korea at the Asian Games on Wednesday. India kickstarted their Asian Games with a massive 3-0 win over Cambodia in their Pool C match at CXC Gymnasium on Tuesday.

India is at the top of the Pool C table with two wins in two games and five points. In the 19-team men's event, India has been grouped with three-time champions South Korea and Cambodia in Pool C.

The men's competition teams have been divided into six groups, with group F featuring four teams. The top two teams from all the groups will qualify for the next round and will play cross-matches against each other. The winners of these matches will further fight for ranks first to sixth, while the rest will fight for ranks 7th to 12th.

India has secured a silver and two bronze at this sport in Asian Games history.