Swimmer Khade wins Asiad bronze, boxer Suranjoy, shuttlers, paddlers advance (Evening Lead)

GUANGZHOU - Swimmer Virdhawal Khade surprised everyone by winning a bronze, while boxer Suranjoy Singh, shuttlers Jwala-Ashwini and paddlers Sharath-Saha advanced into the next rounds on the fourth day of competitions at the Asian Games here Tuesday.

The men’s football team and the women’s hockey teams, however, suffered humiliating 0-6 and 0-3 losses, both to Japan, with the former being knocked out of the tournament.

Veteran Dharminder Singh Lilly lost 8-40 to Joji Kai of Japan in the men’s carom 3 singles quarterfinals while compatriot Alok Kumar went down 4-9 to another Japanese Hisataka Kamihasha in a preliminary match of the men’s 9-ball pool singles.

India’s judo campaign also ended.

Khade, who narrowly missed the bronze in the 50 metre freestyle event Monday, clocked 24.31 seconds for the third-place finish.

Jiawei Zhou (23.66 secs) won the gold while the silver went to Japan’s Masayuki Kishida (24.13 secs).

Suranjoy Singh won 7-2 against Thailand’s Chatchai Butdee, taking a 1-0 lead in the first round and blanking the Thai in the second when he opened up a 4-0 lead.

Butdee, however, managed to get two points in the final round, but Suranjoy rained blows and won the bout 7-2.

Commonwealth Games gold medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa moved into the pre-quarterfinals of the badminton women’s doubles, going past Thailand’s Savitree Amitrapai and P. Munkitchokecharoen.

Gutta and Ponnappa won the first game 21-13, before the Thai pair retired.

The Indians face a tough opponent in second-seeded Chinese pair of Tian Qin and Zhao Yunlei later in the day.

Another Indian pair of Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant lost to Malaysians NG Marylen Poauleng and Khe Wei Woon 17-21, 7-21.

Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha entered the pre-quarters of the men’s doubles table tennis with a comfortable 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 victory over H. Albahrani and M. Alenezy of Kuwait.

Sharath and Saha, who won the doubles gold in the Delhi Commonwealth Games, next face tough opponents in South Koreans Jungwoo Lee and Sang Eun Ho in the round of 16 Thursday.

However, it was the end of the road for Sharath in the mixed doubles — he was partnering Shamini Kumaresan and lost in the pre-quarterfinals. The duo went down 12-10, 4-11, 11-8, 2-11, 6-11 to the Japanese pair of Seiya Kishikawa and Ai Fukuhara.

The other Indian men’s doubles pair of Soumyadeep Roy and Anthony Amalraj failed to get past Cheung Yuk and Li Ching of Hong Kong and lost 5-11, 5-11, 7-11.

The men’s singles and women’s doubles first round matches will be played Wednesday.

The Indian women went down 0-3 to Japan in their second Group A hockey match.

Japan scored through captain Miyuki Nakagawa (10th minute), Chiba Kaori (31) and Arai Mazuki (70).

India had beaten Malaysia 4-0 in the first match.

The loss pushed India to fourth place in the seven-team competition, with three points in two matches.

South Korea and Japan have won all their three matches and occupy first and second place. China are third with two wins from two matches.

India, who won a bronze in the previous Asian Games at Doha, will take on South Korea Wednesday.

India’s judo campaign ended after Tombi Devi and Navjot Chana bowed out in the quarter-finals.

Tombi, who was a medal hope along with judo World Cup bronze medallist Kalpana Devi, failed to score a point against Jung Yeon Chung and lost 0/110 in the women’s 48kg category. The contest lasted two minutes at the Huagong Gymnasium.

Navjot also lost his men’s 60 kg quarter-final 0/120 to Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan in little less than three minutes.