Asian Games 2018: Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar open India's medal tally with bronze

Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar bag Bronze in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event to open the medals tally for India on the opening day of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday.

Meanwhile in the earlier shooting event, Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma failed to qualify for the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Finals. Manu Bhaker, aged 16, became the youngest Indian shooter to have bagged a Gold Medal in the Commonwealth Games in April.

Manu achieved this feat in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in women’s 10m Air Pistol event. She is also the youngest Indian shooter to win two Gold medals at 2018 ISSF World Cup. She is a find of the Khelo India Programme started by Sports Authority of India in 2018.

In the Women's Basketball fixture, Chinese Taipei beat India 84-61 in the 5x5 Group A opening match. India was trailing by just 5 points at the mid-break but Taiwan took off brilliantly after the start of the other half.

Kabaddi, a game which India has given to the world, is one of the many events in which a medal is very much assured at the Asian Games 2018. The Indian eves delivered what was expected of them as they crushed Japan 43-12 in the opening match. Japan, though, gave tough competition to India but fell short once the Indian women took lead.

India suffered a major setback from Sushil Kumar, who won bronze and silver in 2008 and 2012 Olympics respectively. He was defeated by Bahrain’s Adam Batirov 3-5 in Men's Freestyle 74 kg Qualifications. Meanwhile, India's Sandeep Tomar beats Rustem Nazarov of Turkmenistan 12-8 in Men's Freestyle 57 kg to progress to the next round.

The eighteenth edition of the Asian Games (Aug 18 to Sep 2) is being held in Jakarta, Indonesia. India, who hosted the first Asian Games in 1951, have sent 572 athletes for 32 different games. If medal counts in all the Asian Games are to be believed, India stands at the sixth position with 602 medals while China leads the chart with 2,898 medals.

In the Asian Games 2018, China leads the medal tally so far with 2 (1 Gold, 1 Silver) medals followed by Chinese Taipei 2, Bahrain 1 and India 1.