Neeraj Chopra underlined his status as the best javelin thrower in Asia by clinching the gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta on Monday with a new national record of 88.06m.

The 20-year-old, who had won the Commonwealth Games gold in April this year, was head and shoulders above his competitors in Jakarta as all his four registered scores were better than second placed Liu Qizhen of China who clinched silver with a personal best throw of 82.22.

Neeraj’s gold and three other athletics silver medals, along with Saina Nehwal’s badminton singles bronze, propelled India’s overall medal count to 41 (8 gold, 13 silver, and 20 bronze).

Athletics

Neeraj Chopra underlined his status as the best javelin thrower in Asia by clinching the gold medal with a new national record of 88.06m.

The 20-year-old, who had won the Commonwealth Games gold in April this year, was head and shoulders above his competitors in Jakarta as all his four registered scores were better than second placed Liu Qizhen of China who clinched the silver with a personal best throw of 82.22.

Sudha Singh (women’s 300m steeplechase), Neena Varakil (women’s long jump) and Dharun Ayyasamy (men’s 400m hurdles)won silver in their respective events.

Ayyasamy clocked 48.96 seconds to shatter his own national record and finish behind Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba who won the gold with a Games record time of 47.66. Varakil’s best jump of 6.51m came in the fourth attempt, which was enough to fetch her the silver. Veteran Sudha clocked 9:40.03 seconds to win her second Asian Games medal.

Badminton

PV Sindhu created history becoming the first Indian to reach a badminton final at the Asian Games after defeating Akane Yamaguchi 21-17, 15-21, 21-10.

Saina Nehwal ended her campaign with a bronze in women’s singles after losing to world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying 21-17, 21-14 in the semi-finals.

Hockey

Skipper Rani Rampal scored a hat-trick as India outplayed Thailand 5-0 to storm into the semi-finals undefeated in the women’s hockey competition. After two goal-less quarters, the Indians got into the groove and scored five goals after the change of ends through Rani (37’, 46’ and 56’), Monika (52’) and Navjot Kaur (55’) to register their fourth consecutive win.

Boxing

Mohammed Hussamuddin lost to Mongolia’s Kharkhuu Enkh-Amar in the bantamweight round of 16 match. Amit Panghal beat Mongolia’s Kharkhuu 5-0 to move to the quarter-finals of the 49kg category. Vikas Krishan won his round of 16 bout against Pakistan’s Tanveer Ahmed 5-0. Dheeraj Rangi moved to the quarter-finals, winning his 64 kg match by a 3-0 margin, tactically outmaneuvering Kyrgyzstan’s Nurlan Kobashev.

Table tennis

India’s men’s table tennis team assured India’s first ever medal in the sport by defeating Japan 3-1 in the quarter-finals.

The team comprising of G Sathiyan, Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai upset second seeds Japan to reach the semi-finals.

Squash

India began its campaign on a winning note with both men and women recording 3-0 victories in the group stage of the squash team events.

The men beat Indonesia 3-0 in the morning before overwhelming Singapore by the same margin. The women, who had only one match, beat Iran 3-0.

Sepaktakraw

Already out of reckoning, Indian men ended their campaign on a positive note, beating Nepal 2-0 in the last group B regu match. India had lost to Korea and Malaysia before beating China 2-1 in earlier preliminary matches.

Other sports

In volleyball, the Indian women’s team ended its campaign after losing 0-3 to China in the last Pool B match. In a 67-minute match, India lost 18-25 19-25 9-25 to China, who remained unbeaten in the pool stage.

In cycling, both the men’s and women’s sprint and pursuit teams failed to qualify for the final rounds. In the team sprint events, the two teams finished seventh in the qualification round out of eight participants.