India Opens Medal Tally At World University Games With Badminton Bronze
India won its first medal at the World University Games with a bronze in badminton mixed team. Swimmer Srihari Nataraj broke records in the 100m freestyle.
India secured its first medal at the World University Games (WUG) as the badminton mixed team claimed a bronze despite a semifinal defeat to Chinese Taipei. Meanwhile, swimmer Srihari Nataraj continued his impressive run, breaking national bests 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—fell 1–3 to Chinese Taipei in the semifinal round.
Under tournament rules, both losing semifinalists—India and Korea—are awarded bronze medals. Chinese Taipei will now face China, who defeated Korea in the other semifinal, in the gold medal match.
Devika Sihag was the lone winner for India, defeating Huang Ching Ping 15–10, 15–10 in the women's singles match.
In the men's singles opener, Karunakaran lost a close contest to Su Li Yang, going down 13–15, 15–13, 10–15.
Following Devika's win, the men's doubles pair of Dayanand and Karunakaran were defeated 8–15, 13–15 by Chen Zhi Ray and Lin Yu Chieh.
In the final match of the tie, the women's doubles duo of Tasnim Mir and Varshini Viswanath lost 3–15, 8–15 to Hsu Yin-Hui and Yang Chu Yun, sealing the win for Chinese Taipei.
In swimming, Srihari Nataraj bettered the Best Indian Time in the men's 100m freestyle, clocking 49.46 seconds in the heats to qualify for the semifinals. He narrowly surpassed the previous mark of 49.47 seconds, set by Virdhawal Khade during the 2008 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Nataraj finished 12th overall and won Heat 6 to secure his semifinal berth.
Just two days earlier, the 24-year-old had twice improved his own Best Indian Time in the 200m freestyle event.
Compatriot Jashua Thomas Durai finished 47th overall in the 100m freestyle heats with a time of 51.45 seconds, failing to advance.
Nataraj also progressed to the 50m backstroke semifinals, winning Heat 4 with a time of 25.59 seconds and placing 10th overall. However, Dhyaan Mahesh Kumar placed 35th in the heats and missed out on a semifinal spot.
In the women's 100m butterfly, both Nina Venkatesh (1:04.49) and Nilabjaa Ghosh (1:05.52) failed to qualify, finishing 28th and 31st overall respectively.
Similarly, Divyanka Dibya Pradhan and Anushka Sayaji Patil finished 29th and 34th in the women's 200m breaststroke, exiting the competition.
India did not start (DNS) in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay heats.
Early Exits in Fencing
In fencing, the Indian women's Epee team—Mitva Jesangbhai Chaudhari, Tanuja, and Yashkeerat Kaur—lost 21–45 to Germany in the pre-quarterfinals.
The men's Sabre team, featuring Aditya Atul, Abhay Krishna Shinde, and Dhruv Walia, also exited in the pre-quarters, suffering an 11–45 defeat to Korea.
Mixed Results in Tennis
India's mixed doubles duo, Vaishnavi Adkar and Atharva Sharma, advanced to the round of 16 with a 6–1, 6–4 win over Spain's Reina Castilo and Gonzalez Torres.
However, in women's singles, Anjali Rathi was eliminated in the round of 32 after a 1–6, 4–6 loss to China's Li Zongyu.
Table Tennis and Taekwondo Highlights
In table tennis, Suhana Saini, Pritha Vartikar, and Sayali Wani all won their respective women's singles group stage matches. In the men's category, Harkunwar Singh also emerged victorious in his group match.
In taekwondo, Deepanshu advanced to the men's 58kg pre-quarterfinals after defeating Denmark's Ricki Gene Farnes.
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