The Indian women’s volleyball team had a disappointing start to their Asian Games campaign, losing 1-3 to North Korea in their opening match held in Hangzhou. India won the first set but couldn’t sustain their performance and ultimately lost to North Korea with set scores of 25-23, 22-25, 17-25, and 16-25. The match lasted for one hour and 53 minutes at the Deqing Sports Centre in Gymnasium. North Korea’s Hyonju Kim emerged as the star performer, scoring a maximum of 30 points, while India’s Soorya contributed a maximum of 18 points.
In their next volleyball pool match, India is scheduled to face the world’s sixth-ranked team, China. Meanwhile, in the kurash competition at the Asian Games, Indian athlete Pincky Balhara, who had won a silver medal at the Jakarta meet in 2018, was eliminated in the women’s 52kg quarterfinals. Pincky lost to Sitora Elmurodova of Uzbekistan after the final appraisal by the referee favored the latter.
Before her quarterfinal bout, Pincky Balhara had defeated South Korea’s Joo Ye Lee with a score of 5-3 in the pre-quarterfinals, earning her place in the round of eight. In the round of 32, she secured a 5-0 victory against Ayshirin Haydarova.
Unfortunately, other Indian athletes in the competition faced similar outcomes. Suchika Tariyal, competing in the women’s 52kg category, was eliminated in the round of 32, losing 3-8 to the Philippines’ Charmea Quelino. Keshav, who participated in the men’s 66kg category, was defeated 0-10 by South Korea’s Jaedeog Kwon.
India will now look to athletes like Vishal Ruhil (81kg), Yash Kumar Chauhan (90kg), and Jyoti Tokas (87kg) to bring better fortunes in the upcoming events on Sunday.
Suchika Tariyal, a five-time national champion in judo, switched to kurash after finding that her weight category was not included in the Asian Games in judo. She expressed her desire to continue participating in both sports and promote kurash in India, emphasizing that there’s no limit to the number of sports one can pursue.
