Asian Games 2018: Pranab-Shibhnath win bridge gold for India

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Jakarta, September 1: India won a gold medal in the bridge competition of the 18th Asian Games with Pranab Bardhan and Shibhnath Sarkar clinching the top honours in the men's pair event, here on Saturday (September 1).

The 60-year-old Pranab and 56-year-old Shibhnath finished at the top after scoring 384 points in the finals.

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The Chinese pair of Lixin Yang and Gang Chen won the silver with a score of 378 and the Indonesian combination of Henky Lasut and Freddy Eddy Manoppo bagged the bronze scoring 374 here.

Another Indian pair of Sumit Mukherjee and Debabrata Majumder finished at the ninth place with a score of 333.

Bardhan, 60, is now the oldest man in Indian contingent to win a medal at the Asian Games. Bardhan, who had a construction business, said, "Bridge is more challenging than chess. It's the most competitive indoor game."

Sarkar, meanwhile, was anxious about the final. "I could not sleep last night and ate only fruit in breakfast. It's tough, the blood circulation shoots up with tension, we beat China and Singapore, it's great result for us," said an elated Sarkar, who is a teacher at Jadavpur University.

In mixed pair, India's Bachiraju Satyanarayana and Kiran Nadar finished fifth to miss out of a medal after scoring 333 in the final. Another Indian pair in fray, Rajeev Khandelwal and Himani Khandelwal finished at the seventh spot with a score of 329.

In women's pair event, Hema Deora and Marianne Karmarkar ended their campaign at the seventh place with a score of 349. India finished third overall with one gold and two bronze medals. India had won a bronze each in men's team and the mixed team events.