Indian opens WUG medal account with bronze in badminton mixed team

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Berlin, Jul 20 (PTI) India opened its medal account in the World University Games (WUG) through the shuttlers, who won a bronze in the mixed team event despite defeat against Chinese Taipei, while swimmer Srihari Nataraj continued his record-breaking spree in the pool on Sunday.
The Indian mixed team comprising Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, Devika Sihag, Saneeth Dayanand, Tasnim Mir, Varshini Viswanath Sri and Vaishnavi Khadkekar lost to their Chinese Taipei opponents 1-3 in the semifinals.
Under the rules of competition, both the losing semifinalists — the other being Korea — will secure a bronze each.
China and Chinese Tapei will square off in the final. China beat Korea in the other semifinal on Sunday.
For India, only Devika was able to win her women's singles match as she beat Huang Ching Ping 15-10 15-10.
Karunakaran was the first to take the field and he lost his men's singles match to Su Li Yang 13-15 15-13 10-15.
After Devika's win, the Indian men's doubles pair of Dayanad and Karunakaran went down 8-15 13-15 to Chen Zhi Ray and Lin Yu Chieh.
The women's doubles pair of Tasnim and Varshini then lost 3-15 8-15 to Hsu Yin-Hui and Yang Chu Yun in the fourth match as Chinese Taipei wrapped up the semifinal.
In the swimming competitions, Nataraj bettered the 'Best Indian Time' in the men's 100m freestyle, clocking 49.46 seconds to qualify for the semifinals.
The 24-year-old Nataraj erased Guangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist Virdhawal Khade's long-standing mark of 49.47 seconds, set way back in 2008.
He won heat number 6 race and made it to the semifinals at 12th position overall.
On Friday, Nataraj had twice bettered his own 'Best Indian Time' in the 200m freestyle event.
In swimming, national record timings are those achieved only at the National Aquatics Championships. Timings clocked in other meets are considered 'Best Indian Time' or 'Best Indian Performance'.
Compatriot Jashua Thomas Durai failed to make it to the semifinals with a 47th place finish overall with a time of 51.45s in the heats.
Nataraj also qualified for the 50m backstroke semifinals after winning heat 4 with a time of 25.59s and finishing 10th overall.
Another Indian in the fray, Dhyaan Mahesh Kumar took the 35th spot overall in the heats and missed out on the semifinals.
In women's 100m butterfly, India's Nina Venkatesh (1 minute 04.49 seconds) and Nilabjaa Ghosh (1:05.52) finished 28th and 31st overall respectively in the heats to make an exit.
The same was the case for Divyanka Dibya Pradhan and Anushka Sayaji Patil, who finished 29th and 34th overall respectively in the women's 200m breaststroke.
Meanwhile, the Indian team did not start (DNS) in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay heats.
In fencing, the Indian women's Epee team of Mitva Jesangbhai Chaudhari, Tanuja and Yashkeerat Kaur lost 21-45 to Germany in the pre-quarterfinals.
The men's Sabre team of Aditya Atul, Abhay Krishna Shinde and Dhruv Walia also lost 11-45 in the pre-quarterfinals against Korea.
In tennis, the mixed doubles team of Vaishnavi Adkar and Atharva Sharma won their round of 32 match against Reina Castilo and Gonzalez Torres of Spain 6-1 6-4.
However, Anjali Rathi lost to Li Zongyu of China 1-6 4-6 in women's singles round of 32 match.
In table tennis, Suhana Saini, Pritha Vartikar and Sayali Wani won their respective women's singles group matches, while Harkunwar Singh did the same in the men's category.
Taekwondo player Deepanshu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of men's 58kg after beating Ricki Gene Farnes of Denmark. PTI PDS PDS AT AT
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First Published:
July 20, 2025, 20:15 IST
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