<
>

Ojas' stunning 100%, Dhiraj's unbelievable 0, Saurav's remarkable 17: India's Day 10 at Asian Games defined by numbers

Saurav Ghosal in action at the 19th Asian Games, Hangzhou. Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto via Getty Images

India's athletics contingent came to the fore once again, as they earned six medals to take India's tally to 69 overall. It is just one shy of India's tally from the 2018 games, and with the likes of Neeraj Chopra to come tomorrow, it's likely that India will be going past that total.

Here, ESPN India picks out 8 unique numbers that truly helped define the day that India had on Tuesday, October 3.


17 years

Saurav Ghosal won his first men's singles squash medal in the 2006 Doha games (17 years ago) and has medalled in the event in every edition since. He confirmed his fifth singles medal in as many Asiad editions by progressing to the semifinals and his ninth Asian Games medal in total. That Wikipedia page gets longer and longer by the day

100% x2

Ojas Pravin Deotale, shot 15 consecutive perfect 10s in his men's individual compound archery quarterfinal tie against Akbarali Karabayev of Kazakhstan. A world record, Asian record, games record that mathematically cannot be beaten since it was perfection itself.

And then he went and did it again! Even the pressure of a South Korean opponent did not faze the 21-year-old, who landed arrow after arrow in the rings of 10 to win his semifinal against Yang Jaewon too. 30 perfect shots, and if he makes that 45 tomorrow, the Asian Games gold will be his.

0% x2

In contrast to his compound archery compatriot, recurve archer Dhiraj Bommadevara had a nightmare quarterfinal against Ilfat Abdullin of Kazakhstan. In a sport where archers are disappointed to not score 9 or 10 on the target, Dhiraj managed to miss the entirety of the target completely - TWICE.

It left him visibly shaken, and perhaps the absurdity of the event shook his opponent too, with Dhiraj actually narrowly missing out due to his second miss.

Dhiraj went on to explain it to PTI later, saying "It's never ever happened with me even during my practice. The middle finger got accidentally pressed and suddenly my mind went blank."

We'll be generous and refrain from making another zero joke.

1 and 0.59

Parul Chaudhary became the first-ever female athlete at the Asian Games to medal in the women's 3000m steeplechase (silver) and 5000m race (gold). She's also the first Indian women to win a 5000m gold.

Yet, these feats were 0.59 seconds away from not happening - Parul producing a late kick on the inside to sneak past leader Ririka Hironaka of Japan in the last 30 metres. Ririka's stunned face, perfectly captured by the photographers at the Asian Games is perhaps the best descriptor of how thrilling the end to that race was.

1

Annu Rani became the first Indian women to win a gold medal in javelin throw at the Asian Games, and only the third woman to medal in the event after Gurmeet Kaur (bronze, 1998) and Elizabeth Davenport (silver, 1958 and bronze, 1962). What made this even more special that this was Rani's first gold medal in any major international multi-sports event.

The 31-year-old had thrown a dismal 57.05m in the Worlds in August of this year and had not cleared 60m all year. Yet, she threw above 60m twice - the second effort of 62.92 just 32cm behind her national record. Talk about timing.

+8 and 4496

Tejaswin Shankar ran, leapt, threw his way to a silver medal in the men's decathlon event, but what made it special for the once-Deloitte accountant was he broke a national record that stood for 4496 days - Bharatinder Singh with 7658 points. Tejaswin scored 7666 points - which was his aim before the games and he's now etched his names in the record books.

0.38s

That is all that separated Mohammed Afsal from the gold medal in the men's 800m race - after Essa Kzwani of Saudi Arabia surged past him with a late kick to claim first place.

6cm

Abdulla Aboobacker was only six centimeters away from a bronze medal, although it was compatriot Praveen Chithravel who did win it with a jump of 16.68m

22

India's medal haul in athletics is already up to 22 medals - their best ever haul - and there are still a couple of days to go.