26 August 2018: A valiant Indian team did its best through a challenging competition at the Asian Games in Jakarta. A young team of amateurs put their best foot forward but fell short against power packed opposition from Japan, Korea and China. Aadil Bedi was inside the top three through the first two rounds before finishing in T13 with Rayhan Thomas.
The duo ended the week at 2-under with Kshitij Kaul three strokes back in T23. Hari Mohan Singh had a disappointing run, an 82 in the final round sliding him to 21-over for the week.
Keita Nakajima was the runaway winner, pulling off a wire to wire victory over a strong field. His effort was also central to the success of the Japanese team, which clinched the gold medal in the team event.
Seungtaek Oh and Cheng Jin also enjoyed a successful trip to Jakarta.
Japan ended the week at 28-under, seven strokes ahead of China. At 19-under, the Republic of Korea won the bronze medal, edging Thailand by a single stroke.
The Women’s competition was a closer contest. The Philippines took Gold at 22-under, powered by Yuka Saso. The Republic of Korea edged ahead of China by a solitary stroke to take the Silver medal.
Yuka was 13-under after scoring a 66 on Sunday. She won Gold over Wenbo Liu, whose 73 in the final round dropped her into second place.
The Chinese woman scraped past a soaring Bianca Pagdanganan and Ayaka Furue, who finished at 9-under, just one stroke behind Wenbo.
Bianca played a brilliant final round to earn her medal. The Bronze came to her on a sensational 66 on Sunday.
At 4-over, Ridhima Dilawari was the best placed Indian at T17. Sifat Sagoo and Diksha Dagar ended the event in T22 with an overall score of 7-over 295.
The Indian women finished in 8th place at 3-over, with Malaysia and Hongkong completing the top ten.
Note: The article was updated. India were fifth on the team table at the time of the initial publication of this story. The results have since been adjusted for their final position at seventh on the table.
