Asian Games 2023: Golfer Aditi rules the greens at Hangzhou

India golfer Aditi Ashok during her individual event in Hangzhou. Pic/AFP

Aditi Ashok played a sensational third round of 11-under 61 to place herself in a commanding position to win a historic individual gold medal in the golf competition at the Asian Games here on Saturday.

One-shot lead over Thai

Ashok, who is now seven shots clear of her closest rival, also carried the Indian women's team to the top spot, where it holds a one-shot lead over Thailand.

Indian women have never won a medal at the Asian Games, as Ashok had finished a distant 21st at the Incheon Games in 2014.

Ashok's 11-under scorecard was five shots better than the next best round of the day. India's other two players, Pranavi Urs (71-68-70) at 7-under and Avani Prashanth (72-69-74) at 1-under are 11th and tied 19th respectively.

However, the day did not go well for the men. Anirban Lahiri, who needed medical aid to help him through extreme heat in the second round, was off-colour. He shot 2-over 74 on a course that has been yielding low scores.

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Lahiri is tied-17th

Lahiri at 10-under was tied-17th, while SSP Chawrasia with a 68 in the third round was on tied 20th and Khalin Joshi with a card of 69 was on tied 24th.

Shubhankar Sharma shot a wayward 76 that saw him dropping to tied 34th. Hong Kong's Taichi Kho (70) at 24-under leads the men's section with Taipei's Chien-Yao Hung (67) at 21-under and Korea's Jang Yubin (68) at 20-under is third.

The Indian men's team are also out of the reckoning for a medal, as they were eighth with a total of 32-under, which was a massive 26-shots behind Korea, while Thailand and Hong Kong share the second place.

Ashok , who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, is now 22-under with rounds of 67-66-61 for a total of 22-under after 54 holes. Her closest rival, Arpichaya Yubol (67-65-69) is 15-under, while China's Lin Xiyu (67-67-68) is 14-under.

Ashok's stunning round also gave India a one-shot lead in the team competition. Ashok's 11-under put alongside Urs's 2-under 70 helped the Indian women construct a lead.

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