Asian Games 2018: Tejinderpal Singh Toor wins shot-put gold for India; Sindhu, Saina sail into quarters

Tejinderpal Singh Toor Saturday clinched the men’s gold in shot-put with record throw on the 7^th day of Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta. Toor threw the iron ball to 20.75 meter to win gold and break the Asian Games record. He also bettered previous national record of 20.69 meter set by Om Prakash Karhana.

Toor cleared 19.96m in his very first attempt and came up with a huge throw of 20.75 meter in his fifth and penultimate throw. He also bettered his earlier best of 20.24 meter which he came up with in 2017.

China's Liu Yang took the silver while Kazakhstan’s Ivan Ivanov bagged bronze with 19.52 meter and 19.40 meter throws, respectively.

Apart from Toor, Dipika Pallikal, Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal won three bronze medals in squash for India on day 7. With this, India’s total medal tally rose to 29 with seven golds, five silver and 17 bronze medals.

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Sindhu, Saina advances to quarters in badminton

Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal sailed into the women's singles quarterfinals after beating their respective opponents in straight games.

Olympic silver medallist Sindhu defeated Indonesian shuttler and world number 22 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 21-12 21-15 in 35 minutes while Commonwealth Games gold medallist Saina outwitted another local player Fitriani 21-6 21-14 in the second-round match.

In the quarters, Saina will now face either Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon or Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, while Sindhu will take on the winner of the match between Sri Lanka's Kavidi Sirimannage and Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol.

Besides Sidhu and Saina, Hima Das, who won gold in World Junior Athletics Championships in July this year, qualified for the women's 400m finals after finishing in the heats with a national record-breaking time of 51 seconds.

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India’s Medal hopes in golf take a hit

Meanwhile, India’s hope for a medal in golf took a hit on Saturday with all four players shooting over-par in the third round of the men's event. Rayhan Thomas (73), Aadil Bedi (74), Kshitij Naveed Kaul (76) and Hari Mohan Singh (77) were left fighting on the back nine to save their respective rounds.

However, there was still a chance as both Thomas and Bedi were only four shots behind second-placed Sadom Kaewkanjana of Thailand and Oh Seungtaek.

(With Inputs from agencies)