In Japan’s Asian Games, China’s growing footprint — on field & behind the scenes

Pakistan's kabaddi team made a strong start to their Asian Games campaign on Monday, trouncing Malaysia 65-22 in Group B at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium. The team took an early lead with 38-11 by halftime and added another 27 points in the second half. They also claimed 10 all-out points in a commanding performance. Pakistan will face Nepal, who lost to Thailand 48-59, in their next match on Tuesday.

Asim Khan, a Pakistani MMA athlete, secured a bronze medal in the -60kg category at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Centre. He lost his semi-final bout to Mirzobek Umarov of Tajikistan but had already confirmed the bronze by reaching the last-four after defeating Sopanha Pheng of Cambodia in the quarter-finals. In the pool, Hamza Asif failed to advance after finishing second in the 50m freestyle heats, 0.13 seconds behind Alan Muhin of Turkmenistan. Overall, his time placed him 30th, outside the qualifying cutoff for Singapore's Jonathan Tan.

Pakistan's table tennis team continued to struggle, losing to India 3-0 on Monday. Mohammad Khan, Abbas Khan, and Taimur Khan all lost their individual matches to Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Payas Jain, respectively. The women's team fared poorly in doubles, losing to North Korea 11-5, 11-1, 11-4. The mixed doubles pair of Sabrina Khan and Rafae Bashir were also eliminated in the first round by Indonesia, losing 4-1, 4-1, 4-0, 4-1, 4-0 in just nine minutes.