INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India surpassed its previous edition's overall tally of 57 by making it 59 with two more days of competition left
The country also took its gold tally to 13, two more than 2014.Johnson, who surprisingly lost the gold to compatriot Manjit Singh in the
800m, more than made up for that blip with a brilliant rally
Johnson clocked 3:44.72sec to claim the top honours ahead of Iran's Amir Moradi, who turned in a timing of 3:45.62sec, his season's best
And then the 4x400m women's relay team notched up a fifth successive gold to continue their remarkable dominance of the event
The Indian quartet of Hima Das, M R Poovamma, Saritaben Gayakwad and Vismaya Velluva Koroth clocked 3:28.72sec to claim the gold.The men's
team could not get the top position but pulled off a creditable silver with the quartet of Kunhu Muhammed, Dharunn Ayyasamy, Muhammed Anas
and Arokia Rajiv timing 3:01.85sec to finish behind Qatar, which won gold in an Asian record of 3:00.56sec.Adding a bronze was veteran
discus thrower Seema Punia
The 35-year-old cleared a six-year-best of 62.26m for a third-place finish
Punia won a gold in the 2014 edition
Asian champion P U Chitra also won a bronze, in the women's 1500m race.Chitra entered the race as Asian leader this season but had to
settle for a bronze with a timing of 4:12.56 sec
But losing the men's hockey semifinal to Malaysia came as massive blow for the country, which was not just aiming for a gold but also
direct Olympic qualification through a top finish here.The Malaysians handed India a heartbreaking 6-7 loss in sudden death after an
exhausting shoot-off.India will play eight-time champions Pakistan in the bronze medal play-off
Pakistan lost 0-1 to Japan in the other semifinals.Malaysia, who had beaten India in the last-four stage eight years ago at Guangzhou, made
their wasteful opponents pay for their mistakes, both in regulation time and shoot-off
Both teams were tied at 2-2 after 60 minutes.In the shoot-off, it was anyone's game and Malaysia handled the nerves better to make their
India, who had scored a record 76 goals in the group stage, were left stunned after S V Sunil missed his attempt in the sudden death
Only Akashdeep and Harmanpreet scored in the first five shots of the shoot-off while Manpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh and Sunil
faltered."Malaysia are the deserving winners
We committed too many unforced errors and paid the price
We did not keep things simple
We tried to show our Indian skills and by doing that we lost the momentum
It is a big setback for Indian hockey
The road to Olympics is a lot bumpier now
We missed the easiest chance to qualify," conceded Indian coach Harendra Singh.There was no end to the disappointments in sports like
volleyball, sepaktakraw where Indians continued to falter and failed to find any wins.In squash, the Indian women's team lost the
all-important match against Hong Kong 1-2 to finish second in Group B, resulting in a tougher semifinal opponent in defending champions
Malaysia.Senior players Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa lost their matches against Joey Chan and Annie Au, 1-3 and 0-3, respectively
Sunayna Kuruvilla, who is Pallikal's cousin, kept India in the hunt with a fighting win over Tze Lok Ho in the second singles.Kuruvilla,
making her Games debut, was trailing 0-2 in the match and 7-10 in the fifth and deciding game but she never gave up despite some debatable
She fought till the last point for the biggest win of her career, prevailing 5-11, 13-15, 11-6, 11-9, 14-12
In table tennis, Commonwealth Games gold medal winning paddlers A Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the
The two had cinched a historic mixed doubles bronze.