Wednesday promises an action-packed day for Indian fans, with a multitude of events scheduled, raising hopes for a stronger performance from the Indian contingent.
It was a mixed day for India at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China as the men’s football team endured a tough 1-5 defeat against the hosts. However, positive news came from elsewhere as India secured a 3-0 victory over Cambodia in the men’s men’s volleyball competition. Both the meetings were group stage encounters.
Fans will hope for a better show from the Indian contingent on Wednesday as there are multiple events lined-up throughout the day. The action will start with rowing, and will conclude with modern pentathlon and volleyball.
Here’s India’s full schedule at Asian Games on September 20
Rowing Multiple Events (Heats)
Kiran and Geetanjali Gurugubelli (Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls)
Arun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh Lightweight (Men’s Double Sculls)
Parminder Singh and Satnam Singh (Men’s Double Sculls)
PB Aswathi, Mrunmayee Salgaonkar, Priya Devi Thangjam, Rukmani (Women’s Fours)
Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram (Men’s Pair)
Charanjeet Singh, Dhananjay Pande, Naresh Kalwania, Neeraj, Neetish Kumar, Ashish, Bheem Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Punit Kumar (Men’s Eight)
The heats for the rowing events mentioned above starts at 6:30 am.
Balraj Pawar (Men’s Single Sculls)
Ashish, Bheem Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Punit Kumar (Men’s Four)
Parminder Singh, Satnam Singh, Jakhar Khan, Sukhmeet Singh (Men’s Quadruple Sculls)
Geetanjali Gurugubelli, Ritu Kaudi, Sonali Swain, Tendenthoi Devi Haobijam, Varsha Babu, PB Aswathi, Mrunmayee Salgaonkar, Priya Devi, Rukmani (Women’s Eight)
The heats for these rowing events starts at 12:30 pm.
Modern Pentathlon
We then will see Mayank Chaphekar in action in the modern pentathlon event. As the name suggests, modern pentathlon is a discipline that has five different events combined into one. It was first introduced in the Olympics back in 1912 and the event comprises fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running.
Mayank will be in action for the fencing qualifier, which will be conducted in a round-robin format and is scheduled for 12 pm.
Men’s Volleyball: India vs South Korea
Finally we have the volleyball between India and heavyweights South Korea, which is scheduled for 4:30 pm. Despite the strong challenge, India will look to carry forward the winning momentum, having beaten lower-ranked Cambodia 25-14, 25-13, 25-19 in the Pool C encounter.
South Korea are ranked 27th and have previously won five gold medals, third most by any nation at the Asian Games. Japan has secured 27 podium finishes with 16 golds in men’s volleyball at the Asian Games, China follows closely behind with 11 golds.
India, on the other hand, have won a total of three volleyball medals so far, with their best performance coming in 1962 when they finished as the runners-up. The other two medals were bronze, which India won in 1958 and 1986.