Asian Games: Men’s snooker team in final, shooters disappoint (Afternoon Lead)
By IANSMonday, November 15, 2010
GUANGZHOU - The Indian men’s snooker team cruised into the final with a 3-0 demolition of Pakistan while the shooters disappointed at the Asian Games here Monday.
However, there was good news from the pool with Veerdhawal Khade qualifying for the final of the 50 metres freestyle event. Khade finished third in the sixth heat with a timing of 22.98 seconds. In the final at the Aoti Aquatics Centre, he will start in the second lane after registering the fifth best timing in the heats.
Veteran cueist Yasin Merchant, Aditya Mehta and Brijesh Damani brightened India’s chances of another gold as they advanced to the snooker title contest with ease. They will now face China for the gold medal in the evening.
Aditya defeated Sohail Shehzad 84-8 in the first frame before Merchant got the better of Imran Shehzad 75-45 to make it 2-0 for India.
Brijesh and Merchant sealed the tie with a 91-61 victory over Shehzad and Shahram Changezi.
In shooting, India finished a disappointing fifth in the men’s and women’s team event of the 50 metre rifle prone and none of them qualified for the final of the individual event.
Gagan Narang (587), Hariom Singh (590) and Surendra Singh Rathod (586) shot a total of 1,763 at the Aoti Shooting Range and all three failed to make the cut for the individual round.
The team gold went to South Korea with a total of 1,785 points while hosts China bagged the silver with 1,774. Kazakhstan won the bronze with 1771 points.
The individual gold went to South Korean Hakman Kim (595 points) while the silver went Kazakh shooter Yuriy Melsitov with 594 points. China’s (593 points) Tian Hui won the bronze.
In the women’s event, world champion Tejaswini Sawant (588), Meena (586) and Lajja Gauswami (585) finished fifth with a score of 1,759 points.
The team gold was won by South Korean trio of Jungmi Kim (592), Yun Chae Lee (592) and Nara Kwon (591), shooting 1,775 points. Thailand’s Ratchadaporn Plengsaengthong (591), Supamas Wankaew (588) and Vitchuda Pichitkanjanakul (584) shot a total of 1,763 for the silver.
Hosts China settled for the bronze with Wang Chengyi (595), Hou Xiaoyu (586), Huang Na (579) shooting a total of 1,760.
But in the individual event, there was some good news for China as Wang won the gold and Kazakh girl Olga Dovgun got the silver. The bronze was won by Japanese Seiko Iwata.
