Indian women take hockey silver after loss to Japan

India continued to swell its overall medal tally, with the women’s hockey team taking a silver, and sailors winning a silver and bronze on the 13th day of the 18th Asian Games yesterday.Boxer Amit Panghal entered the finals, and so did the women’s squash team.Among others, middle-weight (75kg) boxer Vikas Krishan settled for a bronze medal after conceding a walkout in the semi-finals against Abilkhan Amankul of Kazakhstan due to an injury.On 13th day, India is at the eighth spot in the medals tally with a total of 65 medals (13 gold, 23 silver 29 bronze), equalling its highest tally from the 2010 Guangzhou edition.The hopes of a gold medal were pinned on India’s last event of the day but a 2-1 win by Japan’s women’s hockey team condemned them to take silver.Japan took the lead through Minami Shimizu in the 11th minute but India pulled the level through Neha Goyal in the 25th minute. Motomi Kawamura regained Japan’s lead in the 44th minute. India couldn’t find their equaliser and had to settle for the silver medal.It was India’s second silver medal in women’s hockey in Asiad history. The last time they had finished second was in the 1998 edition in which they lost to South Korea with the same scoreline.In the sailing competition, Varsha Gautham and Sweta Shervegar bagged a silver medal in the women’s 49er FX category, while Harshita Tomar settled for bronze in the Open Laser 4.7 category.In the 49er FX category, Gautham and Shervegar scored a total of 44 points and 40 net points to finish second behind Singapore’s Min Kimberly Lim and Rui Qi Cecilia Low, who got 44 total points and 14 net points. In the Open Laser 4.7 category, Tomar scored a total of 62 points and 50 net points to finish third.In squash, India’s women’s team of Joshana Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Tanvi Khanna entered the finals with a 2-0 victory over Malaysia. In the finals, India will take on Hong Kong, who defeated Japan 2-0.Chinappa registered a 3-2 (10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 9-11) victory over legendary Nicol David, while Pallikal crushed Low Wee Wern 3-0 (2-11, 9-11, 7-11) to give India an unassailable 2-0 lead.In the men’s category, the Indian team, comprising Saurav Ghoshal, Harinder Sandhu, Ramit Tondon and Mahesh Mangaonkar, lost 0-2 to Hong Kong and settled for bronze medal.In boxing, Panghal advanced to the finals as he registered a 3-2 split decision victory over Carlo Paalam of the Philippines to enter the finals of the men’s light flyweight (49 kg) category.Panghal was off to a slow start against Paalam as both boxers were a bit cautious during the opening round. Both boxers employed a lower guard and were equally matched.The second round picked up a bit of tempo as the two boxers tried to up the ante. Panghal managed to land a few scoring punches as the second round drew to a close.That prompted Paalam to employ a higher guard in the third and final round. As a result, although the Indian dominated the round, he was unable to land too many scoring punches.However, Panghal’s performance was enough to give him a victory by a split decision.