Mirabai Chanu secures weightlifting silver as badminton squad faces tough matches

UPDATE - follow-up to Asian Games Day 5 Live Updates: India down 1-2 vs China in badminton semis; Ayush Shetty loses to Shifeng: India's campaign at the Asian Games brought fresh podium finishes on Day 5, led by veteran lifter Mirabai Chanu breaking a twelve-year medal drought in the women's forty-nine kilogram division with a silver finish. Fellow lifter Gyaneshwari Yadav had a tough outing in the fifty-three kilogram category, ending in eighth place with an eighty-seven kilogram snatch and a one hundred eight kilogram clean and jerk for a total of one hundred ninety-five kilograms. On the badminton court, India slipped behind one-two against China in the team fixture. Ayush Shetty dropped his singles encounter to Shifeng in straight sets at nineteen-twenty-one and thirteen-twenty-one after struggling with deep baseline tosses and unforced errors at the net. Meanwhile, the men's doubles combination of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun stepped up against He Ji Ting and Liu Yi, showing flashes of brilliance in the second set where Hariharan powered through the court like a livewire to take it seventeen-twenty-one. In other sporting disciplines, Roshibina Devi advanced to the gold medal match in the women's sixty kilogram wushu bracket after beating Indonesia's Thania Kusumaningtyas two-zero. The shooting range saw mixed fortunes as Manu Bhaker, Suruchi Singh, and Esha Singh missed out in the air pistol events, though India secured two bronze medals in men's and women's skeet alongside a historic maiden soft tennis medal via Jay Meena in the men's singles.