NAGOYA: Six gold in a day — this is by far the best day for India at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. If India were struggling to win gold medals in the first 10 days, the last three days have been quite productive. The day, however, belonged to the boxers and women's hockey team.
If three boxers secured a top of the podium finish, sending the country into a celebratory frenzy, the icing on the cake came later in the day on the hockey field. For the first time in 44 years, the women's team rose from the lows of Paris 2024 to beat China 1-0 and clinch gold at the Asian Games. In the process, they also sealed their berth for the LA 2028 Olympics on Friday.
Lalremsiami landed the first strike in the tenth minute but from thereon, it was goalkeeper Bichu Devi's heroics and a defence that ensured India a historic gold medal. Meanwhile, Archery created history winning India’s first-ever recurve gold beating South Korea. Sujeet Kalkal in wrestling seemed unstoppable.
The three boxers who stood on the top of the podium were Lovlina Borgohain in the morning and two youngsters – Parveen Hooda and Ankush Panghal. All boxers have their own backstories but the one that Parveen has can be considered most stunning.
Like she says she has taken back her life with 'interest'. Parveen had won a medal – bronze – at the last Asian Games. But she lost that medal (not literally) after getting banned for whereabouts failure by the International Testing Agency. She has not returned the medal, instead kept it to spur her on – as a token of motivation.
Ankush is one of the the youngest to win an Asian Game gold – first after the 2018 edition when Amit Panghal won it. His draw was the toughest draw. He had to beat 75kg world champion Erkinboev Fazliddin in the 80kg semifinal. After that final was just a routine fight for him.
What archery started, hockey women ended with gold. With this India have climbed to fifth place in the medal tally with 16 gold.
