Asian Games: Narang shines on day one, Bindra, Rajput unlucky (Evening Lead)

GUANGZHOU - Indian shooter Gagan Narang won silver in the men’s 10 metre air rifle and combined with Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput to clinch another silver in the team event on the opening day of the shooting competition at the Asian Games here Saturday.

However, there was disappointment in store with Bindra and Rajput failing to make the cut for the finals of the individual event. The duo were tied with three other shooters at 593, but lost in the shoot-off for the final round.

After Narang (597), Bindra (593), and Rajput (593) shot silver as a team with a total of 1,783 points, Narang was left alone to shoulder India’s challenge in the individual event. Narang, who won four gold medals in the Delhi Commonwealth Games, had a close fight with China’s 2004 Olympic champion Zhu Qinan (104+598) for the gold. The Indian totalled 700.7 (103.7+597) to finish behind Zhu.

South Korea’s Kiwon Kim got the bronze with a total of 700 (596 qualifying, 104 final).

The Chinese team comprising Zhu, 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.

In other shooting results of the day, India came 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. Navyman Omkar Singh finished seventh 648.2 (557+91.2) in the final of the men’s 50 metre pistol event.

None of the Indian woman could qualify for the final of the 10 metre air rifle event.

In the qualification, 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. 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.

The Chinese trio of Yi Siling (399), Wu Liuxi (398) and Yu Dan (397) shot 1,194 points for the gold.

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.

In men’s 50m pistol team event, Omkar, Amanpreet Singh and Deepak Sharma finished fifth 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 courtesy Commonwealth Games gold medallists Saina Nehwal and the doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa.

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 the 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.

In billiards, defending champion Pankaj Advani scored a thumping 101-27, 102-35, 100-26 win over Indonesian Ricky Yang to march into the quarter-finals of the English billiards singles. Advani will play Praput Chaithanasakun of Thailand for a semi-final berth later in the day.

Indian women’s team — Vidya Vishwanathan Pillai, Chitra Magimarajan and doubles pair of Anuja Chandra and Magimarajan — also made it to the quarter-final of the 6-red snooker team event, beating Singapore 3-0.

Veteran Geet Sethi, however, suffered a shocking loss to OO Nay Thway Oo of Myanmar 53-100, 87-100, 101-50, 79-100 and bowed out early in the competition.