Golf: Aditi Ashok Stays T-2, Women's Team Third; Anirban Lahiri 9th In Men's Section At Asian Games

Indian golfer Aditi Ashok continued to stay in medal contention in the individual event as she was just one shot behind the leader at tied second in the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Friday. In the process, she also kept the Indian women's team in the race for another medal at the West Lake International course. Aditi (67-66) was one behind Thailand's Arpichaya Yubol (67-65) while the Indian women's team is lying third behind China and Thailand. India has never won an Asian Games medal in the women's section.

Pranavi Urs added a fine 68 to her first round 71 to improve to T-10 at 5-under, while amateur Avani Prashanth (72-69) was T-15.

Things did not go as well for the men, as Anirban Lahiri (65-67) was still T-9, while Shubhankar Sharma (68-65) rose one places to T-21. SSP Chawrasia (67-72) slipped 10 places to T-19 alongside Khalin Joshi (70-69) who rose two places.

The men are placed T-6 in the team standings, which is led by Korea, followed by Hong Kong and Japan.

The fourth-place finisher at the Tokyo Olympics, Aditi improved upon her first round 67 by one shot to add a 66, that included five birdies, an eagle on a Par-4 and just one bogey.

Yubol had rounds of 67-65 for a total of 12-under 133. Yubol was bogey free in the second round.

Aditi had a superb start with birdies on the first and the second holes and then eagled the Par-4 fifth hole to get to 4-under.

The putter cooled off after that and she turned in 4-under. On the back nine, she birdied 11th, 15th and 17th, but dropped her first bogey of the week on the par-3 16th.

Pranavi added a bogey-free 68 to her first round 71 to improve to T-10 at 5-under, while amateur Avani Prashanth (72-69) was T-15.

Avani had one birdie and one bogey on the front nine but had an