Asian Games 2018, Day 3: Teenager Saurabh shoots gold, 4 Wushu medals assured for India

Hello and welcome to highlights of Day 3 of Commonwealth Games 2018 from Jakarta and Palembang.

Saurabh Chaudhary was the star of the day as the 16-year-old, farmer's son, went on to win 10m Air Pistol event. Abhishek Verma, a hobby shooter-turned professional, won the bronze in the same shooting event. 

Sanjeev Rajput won a silver in the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions shooting event. 

Divya Kakran won a bronze in the women's 68kg freestyle category. 

Also, four Wushu athletes have assured themselves of at least a bronze each by reaching the semi-final of their respective categories. 

India are at the 10th spot with a total of 10 medals, including three golds. With 30 yellow metals, China are on top of the table. 

Yeah, you read the scoreline right. India women have crushed Kazakhstan in their Pool B encounter. 

Top stuff Indian Wushu contingent. Four medals assured for India. 

Following Naorem Devi, Narender Grewal, Surya Bhanu Partap Singh, and Sathosh Kumar have assured themselves of at least a bronze each by reaching the semi-final of their respective weight categories.

In Wushu at the Games, both losing semi-finalists are assured of a bronze.

Santosh had defeated Phithak Paokrathok 2-1 in men's 60kg quarter-final. Bhanu Partap had beaten Hoang Van Cao of Vietnam 2-0 in men's 65kg quarter-final. Narender defeated Akmal Rakhimov of Uzbekistan 2-0 in the men's 65kg quarter-final as well.

What a show this has been!

It's been a day where India has been winning medals in relatively less-known sports. After a Sepaktakraw bronze, the country is now assured of a medal in Wushu. 

Naorem Devi of India has beaten Pakistan's Mubashra 2-0 in the quarter-final of Women's Sanda 60kg event to assure herself at least a bronze. 

 Four more Indians have the opportunity to assure themselves a medal as they will be featuring in quarter-final bouts, shortly. 

India qualify for the team final in artistic gymnastics, finishing seventh in the 11-team qualification round.

The team consisting Dipa Karmakar, Pranati Nayak, Aruna Budda Reddy, Pranati Das and Mandira Chowdhury raked up a total score of 144.30.

The team performed well in vault and balance beam, finishing on the fourth spot.

Dipa misses vault final berth

Meanwhile, Dipa, who had reached the Rio Olympic fault final, misses a vault final berth at Asian Games.

She had finished eighth but only top two from each country get to qualify for the eight-woman final.

Dipa though has reached the balance beam final at the seventh spot.

What an effort in the bronze medal match by Divya Kakran! She wins the bout against Chinese Taipei's Chen Wenling in just 89 seconds via technical superiority (10-0).

She had lost the quarter-final to Mongolia's Tumentsetseg via technical superiority in the morning session. However, she has shown character in making a strong comeback and taking home the bronze medal. 

Third wrestling medal for India after Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat's gold medals. 

It seems India have put behind the memories of their shock defeat to Korea. They have recovered well and have gone on to beat Thailand 49-30.

That's three wins in four matches for the defending champions and they have qualified for the knockout stages. 

India's Vikram Khade finishes fourth in the men's 50m freestyle swimming. He misses a bronze by just 0.01s. Fine margins and sport!

China's Yu Hexin took gold with a timing of 22.11s, Katsumi Nakamura and Shunichi Nakao finished 2-3 from Japan.

Vikram, with a timing of 22.47s, finished behind Shunichi, who took bronze with a timing of 22.46s.

India's Vikram Khade, who finished third in the heats, is in action in the men's 50m freestyle final. 

India are leading Thailand 21-12 at the half-time. The Asian giants need to maintain the intensity in order to pick up their third win in Group A.

Notably, they were stunned by Korea yesterday after their comfortable wins over Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on the opening day. 

India settle for bronze in Sepaktakraw. The men's team lost their Team Regu semi-final match 2-0 to Thailand.

However, this is the first-ever medal India has won in Sepaktakraw event, which is similar to volleyball but a sport in which the players are not allowed to use their hands to hit the ball across the net. 

Indian shooters Lakshay and Shreyasi Singh were the first to be eliminated in the mixed team trap final.

With a score of 16 after five series of trap shooting, the Indian team finished sixth. Both Lakshay and Shreyasi were under-par on the big day. 

India are reeling at the fifth spot after four series. Both Lakshay and Shreyasi Singh have been struggling.

Team India are at 11 points after four series, the least among the five finalists.

Notably, Shreyasi had missed four of her five shots, putting India in a lot of trouble.

Divya Kakran has earned a bronze medal bout via repechage despite losing quarter-final of 68kg freestyle category to Mongolia's Tumentsetseg.

Tumentsetseg reached the final, thereby paving way for Divya to be in contention for the bronze medal.

Manish, who had progressed to the repechage round 2, suffered an injury during his bout against Hung Yinghua and has exited the Asian Games.

Meanwhile, Kiran (Women's 76kg freestyle) and Gyanender (men's 60kg Greco-roman) have lost the opportunity to win medals as they have failed to reach repechage rounds.

Three wins and a defeat for the Indian contingent on Tuesday.

Gold medal favourites Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan have beaten Thai pairing of Kadchapanan and Trongcharoenchaik in the men's doubles R16 in straight sets.

Sumi Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan have won their Round of 16 tie against Wong and Yeung of Hong Kong in straight games.

Meanwhile, Ankita Raina advanced to the quarter-final of women's singles after beating Japan's Hozumi Eri in straight games.

However, Kamran Kaur Thandi has lost her women's singles R6 to Liang En-Shuo of Chinese Taipei in three sets.

Manish has lost his Greco-Roman 67kg quarter-final to Kebispayev Almat of Kazakhstan via technical superiority (8-0).

The Kazakhstan wrestler was toying around with Manish. However, the Indian wrestler is still not out of medal race as he will wait for the repechage rounds.

Gyanender was beaten 5-0 in the Men's Greco-Roman 60kg quarter-final by Islomjon of Uzbekistan.

He will also learn his medal chances when the repechage round ties are announced.

At 16, Saurabh Chaudhary showed tremendous composure and mental ability to beat a field of world champions and Olympians in the men's 10m Air Pistol event. 

The teenager, who comes from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, was born in 2002 and took to shooting only three year's ago. 

His father is a farmer and the boy, who is in class XI, says he likes farming and tries to help out his father whenever he gets time off training. 

In a battle of two defensive players, Indian wrestler Kiran lost her women's 76kg freestyle quarter-final bout to Medet Aiperi of Kyrgyzstan 4-2. She will not wait for the repechage rounds. 

Divya Kakran has lost the women's 68kg freestyle quarter-final. 

Tumentsetseg of Mongolia won the bout via technical superiority (11-1).

India's medals at Asian Games 2018 so far have been won only by wrestlers and shooters.

Three medals — all from shooting contingent  — have been won by India on Tuesday so far.

Gold medalists

• Bajrang Punia - men's 65kg Freestyle Wrestling
• Vinesh Phogat - Women's 50kg Freestyle wrestling
• Saurabh Chaudhary - 10m Air Pistol Men

Silver medalists

• Sanjeev Rajput - 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men
• Lakshay Sheoran - Trap Men
• Deepak Kumar - 10m Air Rifle Men

Bronze medalists

• Abhishek Verma - 10m Air Pistol
• Apurvi Chandela/Ravi Kumar - 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team

Another medal from the Indian shooting contingent.

Sanjeev Rajput wins silver in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions with a total of 452.7, only 0.6 points behind gold medalist Hui Zicheng of China. 

Here's how Sanjeev shot in the hard-fought final!

Wrestling contingent has already given India two gold medals with Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat winning the yellow metal on the first and second day, respectively.

Indian wrestlers have made a good start today.

Gyanender has beaten Wiratul Piyabut of Thailand 10-2 in the Men's Greco-Roman 60kg. He is now in the quarter-final.

Meanwhile, Manish stormed into the quarter-final of Men's Greco-Roman 67kg quarter-final after beating Tsuchika of Japan 7-3.

Indian mixed trap shooting team of Lakshay Sheoran and Shreyasi Singh have entered the final after finishing fifth in the qualification round. 

They finished with 142 points, four behind Chinese Taipei and China who set a qualification World Record. 

Notably, Lakshay had won the silver in the men's trap event yesterday. 

What a performance from Saurabh Chaudhary. The 16-year-old wins the 10m Air Pistol final with an Asian Games record of 240.7 points. 

He was inconsistent in the initial stages of the final but stepped up once the elimination round started and peak towards the end. 

India's Abhishek Verma won a bronze in the same event while Japan's Tomoyuki Matsuda, who was leading the competition for the most part of it, wins a silver. 

Update: Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma assured medals in the Men's 10m Air Pistol event.

Even as the rest were struggling, Japan's Matsuda shot brilliantly in the second series and is now on the top spot.  India's Saurabh Chaudhury has moved up the second spot while Abhishek Verma slips to the fourth spot. 

After the end of the first series of five shots, India's Abhishek Verma is in the second spot while Saurabh Chaudhary is in the fourth spot. China's Wu JIayu is in the gold medal position. 

Verma starts with a 10.5 and is leading the eight-man final now. Saurabh begins with a 10.2 and is third.

India's Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary will be in action in the men's 10m Air Pistol final shortly. 

India will take on Thailand in Sepak Takraw semi-final. The men's team are assured of at least a bronze, first-ever Sepak Takraw medal for India at the Games.

India had beaten Iran 2-1 on Monday before losing to Indonesia 0-3. However, they managed to qualify for the semi-final from the three-team group.

Sepak Takraw is similar to volleyball but players have to use their feet, head, knees, and chest and not their hands to hit the ball across the net.

• Semi-final: India vs Thailand
• Time: 11 am IST

India's quartret of Bhopal Singh, Jagvir Singh, Tejas Shinde, and Pranay Naukarar have qualified for the Final A of Men's Lightweight Four.

They finished second with a timing of 6:51.88s in the repechages today.

Shooting: Men's 10m Air Pistol final: From 9:45 am IST

Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma

Swimming: Men's 50m Freestyle final at 5 pm IST

Vikram Khade

Wrestling action from 11:30 am IST

Men's Greco Roman 67kg: Manish

Women's Freestyle 76kg: Kiran

Women's Freestyle 68kg: Divya Kakran

Men's Greco Roman 60kg: Gyanendra

Artistic gymnastics: From 1 pm IST

India's gymnastics star Dipa Karmakar will begin her Asian Games campaign in the Women's Artistic gymnastics qualification round today.

Aruna Budda Reddy, Pranati Das, Pranati Nayak, and Mandira Chowdhury will also be in action in the qualification rounds.

Kabaddi

India vs Indonesia: Women's Group tie at 11:20 am IST

India vs Thailand: Men's Group tie from 4 pm IST

Bridge

India will also begin action in Bridge as the Men's team, Mixed Team and Super Mixed Team events begin from 9 am IST.

Sanjeev Rajput has been impressive in the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions shooting. He finished kneeling with a total of 389 points and Prone with 396 points.

He has begun shooting in the standing position now. The 37-year-old is currently in the third spot.

Akhil Sheoran of India is at the 16th spot. 

Swimming

Vikram Khade gave India a good start to Day 3 when he qualified for the men's 50m freestyle swimming event after winning his heat with an impressive timing of 22.43s.

He finished third among the eight finalists.

Anshul Kothari also topped his heat (23.83s) but it wasn't enough to take him to the final.

The final will be held from 5 pm IST.

 Kabaddi

The women's kabaddi team crushed Sri Lanka 38-12 in their Group A game earlier in the day.

They will also be facing Indonesia at 11:20 am IST.

Rowing

Men's singles sculls: Dattu Bhokanal qualifies for the final after topping Heat 1 of the Repechage round with a timing of 7:45.71s.

Meanwhile, Sanjukta Dung and Harpreet Kaur finish third in the women's pair repechage and will not be competing in Final A.

Sanjeev Rajput and Akhil Sheoran are in action in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions men's shooting event.

Meanwhile, Lakshay and Shreyasi Singh are in action in the Trap Mixed Team qualification round.

Shooters are continuing to impress at the Games. In the 10m Air Pistol event, two Indian shooters have qualified for the final. 

Saurabh Chaudhary, reigning ISSF junior world cup champion, makes the final after topping the qualification round with 586 points. Abhishek Verma joins the teenager at the sixth spot with 580 points. 

 The final of the 10m Air Pistol event will be held at 9:45 am IST.