Two Bronze medals for Indian athletes on opening day of Asian Youth Games

Indian players started the 2nd Asian Youth Games with a bang as Indian athletes bagged two bronze medals on the opening day of the games which are being held in Nanjing,China. A total of 90 Indian players are participating in this international multi-sporting event which is held every four years, for athletes aged between 14-17 years.

First medal for the Indian team was won by Lalchhanhima in Men’s 56kg Weightlifting event. 16-year-old Lalchhanhima lifted 100kg in Snatch and 128kg in Clean & Jerk to make the total of 228kg which was good enough for the young boy to win the bronze medal.

Ji Feiyong of China with a total lift of 239kg won the gold and Tran Anh Nuan Nguyen of Vietnam with a total lift of 235kg won the silver.

In boys 62kg weight category India’s Lalu Taku finished 8th, whereas in girl’s 48kg weight category Indian weightlifter Chandrika Tarafdar was disqualified.

Second medal of the day was won by Kabita Devi Mongbam in Girls 44 kg category in Judo. Kabita Devi, who defeated Rosa Fadhi Abdulkaram Shawkara of Yemen in the first round, defeated much higher ranked Kim Eun Ji of Korea in the quarterfinals.

Kabita, however, lost to Wan-Chu Lin of Chinese Taipei in the semifinal but defeated Aida Karchayeva of Kazakhstan by Ippon with Seoi-nage in 26 seconds in the bronze medal clash.

In Squash, two Indian boys Kush Kumar and Vijay Meena entered the quarterfinals in men’s singles whereas, Indian hopes ended in quarterfinals of Women’s singles as Tanvi Khanna lost 6-11 7-11 4-11 to Vanessa Raj of Malaysia and Harshit Kaur Jawanda lost 9-11 11-2 3-11 10-12 to Pansy Pui Hei Chan of Hong Kong.

In Tennis, Indian star player Rutuja Bhosale defeated Olla Mourad of Qatar 6-0 6-0 and will now take on the top seeded Taipei player Ching-Wen Hsu for a place in the quarterfinals, whereas, sixth seeded Simran Kaur Sethi received a bye in the opening round.

Just to remind you that Indian players are participating in this event as independent athletes under the banner of the Olympic Council of Asia because Indian Olympic Association is currently banned by International Olympic Committee due to political interference, so, if any Indian player wins the gold medal in these games, neither the Indian flag will be raised nor the Indian National Anthem will be played, which is a bit unfortunate for the young players who are representing their country at the top most level.