Aditi tied second, women’s team are third; Lahiri is ninth at Asian Games

Aditi Ashok.

Khel Today Bureau 

Hangzhou: Aditi Ashok kept India in contention for two medals in the women’s section at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Aditi was lying tied second in the individual section, while the women’s team was lying third behind China and Thailand. India has never won an Asian Games medal in the women’s section.

Aditi (67-66) was tied second and one shot behind Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol (67-65).

Anirban Lahiri.

In men’s section, Anirban Lahiri (65-67), who was affected by extreme heat, held on to his ninth place, while Shubhankar Sharma (68-65) is T-21. SSP Chawrasia (67-72) slipped to T-29 alongside Khalin Joshi (70-69) who rose three places.

The men are placed sixth in the team standings, which is led by Korea, followed by Hong Kong and Japan.

Lying tied second with Aditi is China’s Yin Ruoning, the first Chinese player to win on the LPGA who later became the first Major winner from her country. Yin, bronze medallist from 2018 Asian Games and World No. 1 till last week, has not dropped any bogeys in her rounds of 67-66.

Of other two Indian women golfers Pranavi Urs added a fine 68 to her first round 71 to improve to T-10 at 5-under, while amateur Avani Prashanth (72-69) was T-15. The Indian women are currently lying third.

The three Chinese players, all of whom play on the LPGA Tour, occupy three of the Top-5 positions with Lin Xiyu (67-67) fourth and Liu Yu (67-68) fifth.

Aditi’s fine round of 66 also took India up into the third place, behind the favourites China (21-under) and Thailand (20-under). The Indian team is at 16-under with Japan close behind at 15-under.

Aditi, who was 4^th at Tokyo Olympics, added 66 to first round 67. Her round had five birdies, an eagle on a Par-4 and just one bogey.

Aditi, with just one bogey in 36 holes, is 11-under and tied-second. She is one shot behind the new leader, Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol (67-65), who like Aditi plays on the LPGA Tour in the US.

Aditi had birdies on the first and the second holes and then eagled the Par-4 fifth hole. She turned in 4-under and on the back nine she birdied 11^th, 15^th and 17^th, but in between she dropped her first bogey of the week on the par-3 16^th.

Pranavi Urs added a bogey free 68 to her first round 71 to improve to T-10 at 5-under, while amateur Avani Prashanth (72-69) was T-15. Avani had one birdie and one bogey on the front nine, but had an action-filled back nine with four birdies against two bogeys.

In the men’s team standings, India is tied sixth but are 18 shots behind favourites Korea, who are fielding two PGA Tour players, Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim. Korea are way ahead at 45-under but their stars have been two amateurs Jang Yubin (lying second) and Cho Wooyung (lying tied third).

The Hong Kong men’s team, spearheaded by the 22-year-old Taichi Kho (62-60), at 38-under is second but seven behind Korea. Japan (35-under) and Thailand (31-under) are third and fourth, while India (27-under) is a distant fifth.

In the men’s individual section, Taichi Kho at 22-under leads by six shots and the first round leader, Jang Yubin (61-67) at 18-under is four behind. Lahiri is the best Indian at 12-under.

Lahiri, who was affected by the heat, had six birdies against just one bogey, but that did not seem enough as he slipped slightly on a course, which has been yielding low scores.

Each day, the top two scores from each team are counted towards team scores.