India's first day at the Asian Games began with the rowers lighting up the waters of the Fushun River, while 19-year-old shooter Ramita Jindal won the country's first individual medal of the Games. Three silvers, two bronzes and #7 on the medal table: that's how India fared on day 1. With five medals in three hours, India are off to one helluva start.
Rowers row away to the podium
India, on a lazy Sunday morning, woke up to the news of Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat winning silver in the men's lightweight double sculls. An hour later, two more medals came from the Fushun River - Lekh Ram and Babu Lal Yadav bagged bronze in the men's pair rowing event, while the men's Eight team clinched silver.
Shooters on target
Just as we were watching the replays of that, India had another medal to its name as Ramita Jindal, Mehuli Ghosh, and Ashi Chouksey bagged silver in the Women's 10m Air Rifle team event. Ramita, who won silver in the team, came back to claim an individual medal as she pipped her senior colleague Mehuli Ghosh to the bronze in the women's 10m Air Rifle final.
It didn't stop there: the Indian women's cricket team advanced to the final with an emphatic eight-wicket win over Bangladesh.
Strange draw? Doesn't matter, proves Nikhat
Nikhat Zareen gave Indians more reason to cheer as she won what was likely to be her toughest bout of the Asian Games. The two-time world champion earned a unanimous verdict win over Thi Tam Nguyen in the women's 50kg pre-quarterfinals.
Fun fact: they are the two best boxers in the category and yet faced off in the first round due to a bizarre draw. Incidentally, Nikhat had beaten Nguyen to win the World Championship earlier this year. Preeti Pawar (54kg) also won to ease into the quarterfinals.
How many goals are too many goals?
Then came the Indian hockey team's score-goals-for-fun show as they put 16 past a hapless Uzbekistan. They scored quite literally for fun. Think this was impressive? Wait until you hear this: India scored 26 unanswered goals against Hong Kong at the 2018 Asian Games.
A miracle in Hangzhou ft. Sharath Kamal
While the men could not stop scoring, the women's rugby 7s team simply could not stop conceding. They lost 38-0 to Hong Kong and 45-0 to Japan, but the scoreline doesn't doesn't paint the entire picture. They're making baby steps in what is an interesting journey in Indian women's rugby.
Elsewhere, the men's table tennis team found themselves in a spot of bother. They were tied 2-2 with Kazakhstan and Sharath Kamal, playing the decider, lost the first two games and was trailing 6-8 in the third. Channelling the tenacity that has made him India's most successful table tennis star, he snatched away the next three games and took the team into the quarters. They went on to lose in the last-eight, while the women also did not make it to the medal round.
Chhetri does Chhetri things, India's fairytale volleyball run ends
There was heartbreak on the volleyball court as the men's team's giant-slaying run came to a stop against Asia #1 Japan in the pre-quarters. They may have lost out on a medal, but their resilient displays [which were unfortunately not on TV] piqued the country's interest.
It was hardly surprising that Sunil Chhetri was among the goals again as the men drew with Myanmar to progress past the group stages, while Bala Devi's women's team fluffed chances aplenty to crash out.
China, expectedly, lead the medal standings
At the time of publishing this, China topped the medal tally with 20 gold medals. For context, all the other nations, combined, have won a total of 11 golds on day one.