Asian Games: Indian shooters win silver, badminton teams lose (Afternoon Lead)

GUANGZHOU - Indian shooters got the country its first medal in the Asian Games with Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput winning silver in the men’s 10 metre air rifle team event, while in badminton both the men and women’s teams bowed out in the first round itself on the opening day of the competition here Saturday.

Narang (597), Bindra (593) and Rajput (593) missed the gold by a point after they shot a total of 1,783 at the Aoti Shooting Range. The Chinese team comprising 2004 Olympic champion Zhu Qinan, Yu Jikang and Cao Yifei won the gold with 1,784, points while South Korea’s Kiwon Kim, Jonghyun Kim and Sungsoon Choi got the bronze with 1,780 points.

However, there was some disappointment in store for India as Beijing Olympic champion Bindra and Rajput failed to make the cut for the finals of the individual event.

Narang, who won four gold medals in the Commonwealth Games, qualified for the final, shooting 597. Bindra and Rajput, who were tied with three other shooters at 593, lost in the shoot-off for the final round.

In other shooting results of the day, India finished seventh in the women’s team event of the 10 metre air rifle event while the men’s team finished fifth in the 50 metre pistol event.

None of the Indian woman could qualify for the final of the 10 metre air rifle event. Navyman Omkar Singh, who finished fifth and qualified for the final of the men’s 50 metre pistol event, had a total of 648.2 (557+91.2).

In the women’s 10 metre qualification round, Suma Shirur finished 10th with 396 points. Another Indian Kavitha Yadav finished 28th, logging 390 while Tejaswini Sawant also shot 390 points, but finished 33rd on the basis of perfect 10s.

The Indian team of Suma, Kavitha and Tejaswini finished a distant seventh with 1,176 points. Suma and Kavitha had won the pairs bronze in the same event last month in the Commonwealth Games.

Chinese trio of Yi Siling, Wu Liuxi and Yu Dan shot a total of 1,194 points for the gold. Siling topped the qualification by shooting 399 points out of 400, while Liuxi finished second with 398 and Dan was fifth with 397 points.

Iran’s Elaheh Ahmadi, Emamgholinejad and Jambozorg Mahlagha took the silver with a total of 1,192 points while the bronze went to Uzbekistan’s Fatkhi Yana, Elena Kuznetsova and Sakina Mamedova with 1,182 points.

South Korea bagged the first gold medal of the shooting competition when they won the men’s 50m pistol team title.

The South Korean trio of Jin Jong-Oh, Lee Sang-Do and Lee Dae-Myung shocked the fancied Chinese with an overall tally of 1,679 points. China’s Pang Wei, Pu Qifeng and Wu Jing managed 1,671 points for second place, while Japan finished with 1,667 points.

The Indian team comprising Omkar, Amanpreet Singh and Deepak Sharma finished fifth in 50m pistol event with a score of 1,646.

In badminton, India lost 1-4 in the men’s competition and their only win came through a gutsy Parupalli Kashyap, who defeated Hsuan Yi Hsueh 18-21, 21-13, 23-21 after saving two match points.

The women’s team lost 2-3 after winning their first two matches courtsey Commonwealth Games gold medallists Saina Nehwal and the doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashiwni Ponnapa.

Saina gave India a rousing start beating Adriyant Firdasari 21-16, 21-17 while Gutta and Ponnapa, ranked 31, pulled off a remarkable victory against world no. 9 Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari 21-17, 17-21, 23-21.

But India lost their next three matches. In the second singles, Aditi Mutatkar went down to M.F. Kusumastuti 10-21, 16-21.

In another doubles, Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant lost to Liliyana and N.K. Maheswari 11-21, 11-21.

Arundhati Pantawane went down to Linda Wenifanetri 9-21, 10-21 in the decider.

In the men’s round of 16, Arvind Bhat gave a tough fight to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Yu Hsing, before going down 26-28, 21-15, 13-21 in a marathon encounter.

In doubles, Akshay Dewalkar and Sanave Thomas lost to Fang Chieh Min and Lee Sheng Mu 19-21, 17-21.

Kashyap then beat Hsuan to pull one back.

The men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave went down to Chen Hung Ling and Lin Yu Lang 17-21, 20-22.

Earlier, the first of the 476 gold medals in the Asian Games went to China when Yuan Xiaochao won the men’s Changquan title in wushu.

Japan’s Daisuke Ichikizaki took the silver and Iran’s Ehsan Peyghambari the bronze