Aichi-Nagoya: India finished fourth in the men’s 10m air pistol team event at the Asian Games on Thursday, with Kamaljeet, Kedarling Uchaganve and Aakash Bhardwaj combining for a score of 1727-53x.
China topped the team standings with 1743-70x, followed by Indonesia with 1743-57x and Japan with 1730-54x.
India remained in medal contention for much of the competition but slipped from third to fourth after Kedarling struggled in his individual series.
Kamaljeet and Aakash miss individual final
Kamaljeet was India’s highest-placed shooter, finishing ninth with a score of 580-16x after completing all 60 shots.
Aakash Bhardwaj finished 11th with 579-20x.
Only the top eight shooters advance to the individual final, meaning both Indian shooters narrowly missed out on a place in the medal round.
Kedarling Uchaganve endured a difficult outing and finished 35th with 568 points. His score proved costly for India’s team total and contributed to the country’s slide from third to fourth position.
Roshibina Devi wins second straight Asian Games silver
India added another medal in wushu, with Roshibina Devi securing her second consecutive Asian Games silver medal in the women’s sanda 60kg category.
Roshibina lost the final to China’s Zhang Xiaoyu, who won both rounds 5-0 to secure a 2-0 victory.
The result gave Roshibina her third consecutive Asian Games medal. She had previously won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games before claiming silver at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.
Her achievement makes her the first Indian woman to win medals at three consecutive Asian Games in wushu.
Roshibina had enjoyed a strong campaign in Aichi-Nagoya, including a victory over Vietnam’s 2023 world champion Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy.
She had booked her place in the final after defeating Indonesia’s Thania Kusumaningtyas 2-0 in Wednesday’s semifinal.
Satnam Singh and Salman Khan claim rowing bronze
India also secured a bronze medal in rowing, with Satnam Singh and Salman Khan finishing third in the men’s double sculls final.
The Indian pair clocked 6:13.25, finishing 3.48 seconds behind China’s gold-medal-winning combination of Yi Xudi and Nie Yide. Uzbekistan’s Mekhrojbek Mamatkulov and Pavel Sorin took silver, finishing 2.76 seconds ahead of the Indian crew.
Satnam and Salman were in second position at the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m marks and were briefly within half a second of the Chinese crew.
However, the Indian pair could not maintain that pace during the closing stages and eventually finished with the bronze medal.
Balraj Panwar misses rowing medal
India’s Balraj Panwar narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s singles sculls final, finishing fourth.
Balraj remained in second place at the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m checkpoints and entered the final 500m stretch with a significant advantage over Japan’s Tatsuya Sakurama.
However, he was overtaken during the closing stages by Uzbekistan’s Shakhboz Kholmurzaev and Sakurama, dropping out of the medal positions.
Balraj clocked 6:54.80, finishing 15 seconds behind gold medallist Zhiwei Deng of China.
He had held an advantage of around five seconds over Sakurama before the final stretch but eventually finished approximately eight seconds behind the Japanese rower.
India adds to Asian Games medal tally
India’s fourth-place finish in the men’s 10m air pistol team event came alongside medals in wushu and rowing on Thursday.
While the shooting trio narrowly missed a team medal and Kamaljeet and Aakash failed to make the individual final, Roshibina’s silver and the Satnam-Salman bronze added to India’s medal tally.
The results also highlighted the fine margins in Asian Games competition, with India’s shooting team losing its medal position after a difficult final individual performance and Balraj missing the rowing podium despite remaining among the leaders for most of his race.