The Indian women’s volleyball team started their campaign at the Asian Games on a disappointing note, losing 1-3 to North Korea in their opening match in Hangzhou on Saturday. India won the first set but failed to continue the momentum and lost to North Korea 25-23, 22-25, 17-25, and 16-25 in a Pool A match that lasted one hour and 53 minutes at the Deqing Sports Centre in Gymnasium.  North Korea’s Hyonju Kim emerged as the star performer, scoring a maximum of 30 points, while India’s Soorya scored a maximum of 18 points in the match.

(Asian Games 2023 Medals Tally | Asian Games 2023 Full Schedule)

India will face world no. 6 China in their next pool match on Sunday.

Indian men’s team ended its campaign at the sixth place.

Pincky Balhara knocked out in quarterfinals of Kurash

India’s Pincky Balhara, a silver medallist at Jakarta meet in 2018, was knocked out in the women’s 52kg quarterfinals of the kurash competition at the Asian Games on Saturday.

Pincky lost to Sitora Elmurodova of Uzbekistan after the final appraisal by the referee went in favour of the latter.

Earlier, the 24-year-old Pincky overcame South Korea’s Joo Ye Lee 5-3 in her pre-quarterfinals bout at the Linpu Gymnasium to reach the round of eight.

In the round of 32, Pincky defeated Ayshirin Haydarova 5-0.

The other Indians in the fray too were knocked out of the Asian Games.

Suchika Tariyal, who was also competing in the women’s 52kg category, was knocked out in the round of 32 itself.

Suchika lost to Philippine’s Charmea Quelino 3-8.

Keshav, who contested in the men’s 66kg, too went out of the competition.

The Indian was blanked 0-10 by South Korea’s Jaedeog Kwon.

India will now hope that Vishal Ruhil (81kg), Yash Kumar Chauhan (90kg) and Jyoti Tokas (87kg) will bring better fortunes on Sunday.

The 33-year-old Suchika is a five-time national champion in Judo but turned to Kurash after finding that her weight category was not included in Asian Games.

“I’ve played in the World Cup, world championships, Asian Championships and even the Comonwealth Games last year (at Birmingham 2022). My weight category is not part of the Asian Games in judo, which is what made me change my sport,” she said.

On training with Pincky, she said: “I was training with her even in the camp before the Asian Games. We have been training together for a few years before as well.

“I do want to return to judo and continue playing both sports. There’s no time or limit to the number of sports you can play or want to play.  “I don’t feel like leaving one sport for the other, I want to continue trying. I want to take the sport of kurash forward in India.”