The 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games concluded at Ashgabat in Turkmenistan yesterday. On the concluding day Indians grabbed four medals, including a gold through tennis player Sumit Nagal, to end at 11th place.
Nagal bagged the men’s singles gold medal in the tennis event as he outplayed compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-1 6-1 in the all-Indian final. It was the second medal for Prashanth in the tournament, having won a gold in the men’s doubles with reigning singles national champion Vishnu Vardhan
In chess, India collected two bronze – in men’s blitz team and men’s blitz team under-23. The pair of K Sasikiran and Surya Sekhar Ganguly lost to the Vietnam duo of Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son in the semifinals of men’s blitz team event to settle for a bronze.
In the men’s blitz team under-23, the duo of Diptayan Ghosh and Vaibhav Suri lost to the Iran pair of Alireza Firouzja and Parham Maghsoodloo in the semifinals to be content with the bronze.
With 9 gold, 12 silver and 19 bronze, India finished at 11th position in the Games.Hosts Turkmenistan topped the medals tally with 89 gold, 70 silver and 86 bronze, followed by China and Iran.