Indian men's badminton team's silver medal at Asian Games marks end to 37-year drought
New Delhi, Oct 1: The Indian men's badminton team secured a historic silver medal at the 19th Asian Games after a closely contested final match that ended 2-3 in favor of defending champions China. This remarkable achievement marked India's first-ever silver in the men's team event at this prestigious continental meet and the country's first medal in the men's team event at the Asian Games in 37 years.
The last time the Indian men's badminton team clinched a medal at the Asian Games was during the 1986 Seoul edition. The team was led by icons such as Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi, featuring prominent players like Vimal Kumar, Ravi Kunte, Uday Pawar, Sanat Mishra, and Leroy D'sa.
Heading into the final match against the defending champions, India faced a setback due to the absence of top singles player H.S. Prannoy, who was sidelined on Sunday due to an injury sustained in the semifinal victory against South Korea on Saturday. In Prannoy's absence, Mithun Manjunath played the fifth match but was defeated by China's Hongyang Weng.
In the opening tie, Lakshya Sen displayed remarkable prowess by defeating world No. 6 Shi Yuqi with a scoreline of 22-20, 14-21, 21-18. Following this, the world No. 3 men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy secured a crucial victory, winning 21-15, 21-18 against the world No. 2 pair of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, providing India with an early 2-0 lead.
However, the Chinese team managed to level the gold medal tie at 2-2 when Li Shifeng defeated former world No. 1 Srikanth with a score of 24-22, 21-9, and the men's pair of Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi claimed a dominant 21-6, 21-5 win against India's Dhruv Kapila and Sai Pratheek.
In the final match, Manjunath was unable to salvage the tie, suffering a 6-21, 15-21 loss. Consequently, India narrowly missed the gold and settled for the well-deserved silver medal.
The badminton events at the Asian Games 2023 will continue with the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles events, commencing on October 2.
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