Asian Games, India’s day 7 results: Tajinder Pal wins shot put gold, three bronze medals from squash

As the day drew to a close at Jakarta, when it seemed like India would end it without bagging a gold medal at the Asian Games, Tajinder Pal Singh Toor broke the national shot put record, bettered the Games record to put his country eighth on the medals tally.

Squash saw India win three bronze medals with Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal all losing their semi-final matches.

On the first day of the athletics competition, Tajinder stole the show with his fifth throw of 20.75 metres that fetched him the gold.

“I had just one aim in mind. I wanted to clear 21-metre. I did not think of gold. But I am happy with this. I was trying hard to break the national record for the last 2-3 years and it happened today, that too with a meet record,” Tajinder said after the event.

His compatriots from the athletics contingent did well, too. Muhammad Anas and Arokia Rajiv qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s 400 metres. In the high jump event, Balasubramanya Chethan qualified for the finals with a jump of 2.15 metres in Group B.

Hima Das qualified for the 400 metres semi-final. And, Sreeshankar qualified for the finals of men’s long jump final with a clean jump of 7.83 metres. Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Joshna Chinappa had to be content with bronze medals in women’s singles after losing to their respective opponents.

Badminton’s biggest stars – PV Sindhu and Saina – advanced to the women’s singles quarter-finals after beating their respective opponents in straight games.

Here are all the results from day seven.