Asian Games Day 9: India Wins 7 Medals, Tally Reaches 37 As Anahat, Abhay Take Squash Silver

India enjoyed another strong day at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, adding seven medals on Sunday to take its overall tally to 37 - 4 gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze. Athletics led the medal rush with five podium finishes, while squash added two silver medals. India also assured itself of three more medals in boxing.

Ancy Sojan came agonisingly close to gold in the women's long jump, producing a best effort of 6.53m before China's Huang Yingying jumped 6.55m with her final attempt to win by just two centimetres. Sarvesh Kushare also took silver in the men's high jump after clearing 2.25m, with Chinese Taipei's Chao Hsuan-Fu taking gold after clearing the same height in fewer attempts.

Parul Chaudhary won bronze in the women's 3000m steeplechase with a personal best and national record of 9:08.67, securing her second successive Asian Games medal in the event. Harita Bhadra added another bronze in the women's 200m, clocking 23.20 seconds in a photo finish. Tejaswin Shankar completed the athletics haul with bronze in the decathlon after winning the final 1500m event in 4:33.09 and finishing with 7,934 points.

Squash produced two historic silver medals. Anahat Singh, 18, lost 4-11, 4-11, 7-11 to Malaysia's Sivasangari Subramaniam in the women's singles final, while Abhay Singh went down 9-11, 5-11, 5-11 to Malaysia's Ng Eain Yow in the men's final. Anahat became the first Indian woman to reach an Asian Games singles squash final, although India continued to wait for its first individual Asian Games squash gold.

Boxing provided another major boost, with Parveen Hooda, Ankush Panghal and Narender Berwal all reaching the semifinals and assuring India of at least three more medals. Parveen defeated Uzbekistan's Navbakhor Khamidova 5-0 in the women's 65kg quarterfinal, Ankush beat Tajikistan's Nekruz Salimov 5-0 in the men's 80kg category, while Narender stopped Thailand's Adthapong Saengtep in the men's 90+kg quarterfinal. Sachin Siwach, however, lost 0-5 to Japan's Shunsuke Kitamoto in the 60kg quarterfinal.

The badminton campaign ended without an individual medal. PV Sindhu lost 21-11, 18-21, 10-21 to Olympic champion Chen Yufei, while Unnati Hooda was beaten by three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi. Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila also lost their quarterfinals. India's men's team bronze remains its only badminton medal at these Games.

Elsewhere, the women's hockey team beat Singapore 7-0 to finish top of Pool B unbeaten and set up a semifinal against Korea. India's archers advanced across all six team events contested, while Mohammed Afsal reached the men's 800m final and the women's 4x100m relay team qualified for its final. India also progressed in surfing, while shooting, fencing, sepak takraw, kurash and equestrian produced mixed results.

With 37 medals secured and three more boxing medals guaranteed, India now heads into the next phase of the Games with its medal challenge spread across athletics, boxing, hockey, archery and other team and individual events.