Jitu wins gold for India on opening day of Asiad

New shooting sensation Jitu Rai stole the limelight by provided the first gold medal, while Shweta Chaudhry claimed a bronze as India launched their campaign in the 17th Asian Games on a rousing note with two medals on the opening day of competitions here today.
While Jitu struck gold in the 50m pistol event, Shweta's bronze came in the 10m air pistol competition at the Ongnyeon Shooting Range here but medal aspirants Heena Sidhu and Malaika Goel turned out to be disappointments as they failed to even reach the finals.
India also assured themselves of a bronze medal in badminton and squash events on what turned out to be a reasonably good opening show with a gold medal coming on the very first day.

In badminton, India today ended a 28-year-old medal drought in Asian Games after the women's shuttlers, led by Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu, edged out Thailand 3-2 to reach the semifinals of the team event.
After Saina and Sindhu registered hard-fought victories in the first two singles, scratch combination of Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa finally assured India the bronze medal after they clinched the final women's doubles match.
India also assured their first ever women's singles medal after top players Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa won their respective openers and set up an exciting contest in the quarterfinals.

World No.21 Chinappa blanked 183rd ranked South Korea Song Sunmi 11-9 11-7 11-7 at the Yeorumul Squash Courts.

Soon after, World No.12 Pallikal stepped on the court against 150th ranked Jinyue Gu of China. The highest-ranked Indian slipped a bit before prevailing 11-6 10-12 11-6 11-4.
The Indian women's tennis team was also off to a winning start as it blanked Oman 3-0 in the first round here.
Prarthana Gulabrao Thombare and Ankita Raina notched up contrasting singles victories before the pairing of Natasha Marie Anne Palha and Rishika Sunkara was handed a walkover in the doubles match.