It was a dramatic Sunday when India kept chasing gold through the day in the equestrian park and the GBK Athletics Stadium. The silver medals kept coming but that big win remained elusive. From the Fouaad Mirza-led three-day eventing team that delivered two silver medals to sprinters Hima Das, Dutee Chand and Muhammed Anas, India discovered that gold was acting pricey.
The 18-year-old Hima Das broke the women’s 400m National record for the second time in two nights, becoming the country’s first woman quarter-miler to stop the clock inside 51 seconds. The brave run, during which she challenged Salwa Naser (Bahrain) saw her finish in second place with a timing of 50.79 seconds.
A few months ago, none would have imagined this daring sprint since she was only a 200m runner.
The beaten-but-not-disgraced story repeated itself in the men’s 400m final where Muhammad Anas claimed silver, even if appearing to lose pace rapidly. This was uncharacteristic of the man who, in the past few months, has conveyed the impression that he has enough gas left in the tank after the 400m to extend his run. But Qatari Abdelalah Hassan was just too good for him.
Dutee Chand’s silver on Asian Games debut was a bit unexpected and therefore warmed the cockles of the hearts of her fans. Having run 11.43 in the semi-finals, when she was the third fastest qualifier, a bronze was the best that many would have expected on a humid evening against runners with longer stride lengths. Chand made up for lack of height with tremendous grit as she ran the race of her life. Of course, she has run faster – the 11.24 in Almaty in 2016 being her best and standing as the National record – but this was the biggest stage on which she was in with a chance of winning a medal after her remarkable fight against IAAF in Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Two bronze medals from the large bridge squad that made its debut in the Asian Games. The men’s team and the mixed team made it to the semi-finals but had to settle for bronze medals. There were medals for the likes of 60-year-old Jaggy Shivdasani and two 67-year-old women, Kiran Nadar and Hema Deora as well as the Khandelwal couple, Himani and Rajeev.
After days of disappointment, the Indian archery camp provided some good news with victories in the women and men’s compound team events. The trios got to the respective final with victories over Chinese Taipei teams, the women rallying from a five-point deficit at the halfway mark to win 225-222 and the men banking on good scoring in the second and third ends to win 231-227.
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