Aditi T2, women’s team are third; Lahiri ninth at Hangzhou

By Rahul Banerji

Aditi Ashok kept India in contention for both medals in the women’s section of the Asian Games golf event in Hangzhou, China, on Friday.

In the men’s event, Anirban Lahiri held on to ninth place but well behind runaway leader Taichi Kho of Hong Kong who was six shots up on the field after 36 holes.

LPGA regular Aditi was tied for second in the individual section, and her total helped push India to third place behind China and Thailand and the chance of a medal double on Sunday. India have never won an Asian Games medal in the women’s section.

Aditi (67-66) was alongside China’s first LPGA and major winner Yin Ruoning (67-66) one shot behind Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol (67-65).

Lahiri (65-67), who was affected by extreme heat, held on to ninth place, while Shubhankar Sharma (68-65) was T21. S.S.P. Chawrasia (67-72) slipped to tied 29th alongside Khalin Joshi (70-69) who climbed three places on the day.

Holding station

The men were holding on to fifth place in the team standings led by Korea and followed by Hong Kong and Japan.

Sitting with Aditi in shared second, Yin, a bronze medallist at the 2018 Asian Games and world no. 1 till last week, has not dropped a shot over the opening 36 holes.

Of other two Indian women, Pranavi Urs added a fine 68 to her first round 71 to improve to T10 at 5-under, while amateur Avani Prashanth (72-69) was T15. The Indian women are currently third on 16 under par.

The Chinese women, all of whom are on the LPGA, occupy three of the top five positions with Lin Xiyu (67-67) fourth and Liu Yu (67-68) fifth. Their two best scores have them in the lead on 21 under with Thailand a shot behind.

Aditi, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics had five birdies, an eagle, and one bogey in her 66 on Friday. She is one shot behind the new leader, Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol (67-65), who like Aditi plays on the LPGA.

Only blemish

India’s lead player had birdies on the first and second holes and then eagled the par-4 fifth. She turned in 4-under and on the back nine she birdied 11, 15 and 17, but in between she dropped her first shot of the week on the par-3 16^th.

Pranavi had a bogey-free 68 after an opening 71 to improve to shared 10th, while two-time national champion Avani Prashanth had a 69 to back her opening 72.

The Bangalore teenager had one birdie and one bogey on the front nine, but had an action-filled back nine with four birdies against two dropped shots.

In the men’s team standings, India are tied for sixth, 18 shots behind favourites Korea, who are fielding PGA Tour players Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim.

They have so far aggregated 45 under but their stars have been two amateurs, Jang Yubin (16 under, T2) and Cho Wooyung (14 under, T4).

Peerless display

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

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

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

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

Also read: At Asian Games, Aditi is tied second, Lahiri shared ninth on Day 1