Asian Games: Women’s wushu silver, 9-0 hockey victory, Saina, Vijender move ahead (Roundup)

GUANGZHOU - Women’s wushu produced a silver and the men’s hockey team demolished Bangladesh 9-0, while shuttler Sania Nehwal and boxer Vijender Singh moved ahead on an otherwise gloomy day for India at the Asian Games Wednesday.

After five days of competitions, India slipped to 11th place in the medal’s tally with a mere 13, comprising one gold, five silver and seven bronze.

China head the table with 172 medals (97-39-36), followed by South Korea-82 (29-22-31) and Japan-93 (17-41-35). North Korea, Iran, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Kazakhstan are the other countries above India.

Sharath Kamal and Amalraj Anthony advanced to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the table tennis competition, the shooters continued to disappoint, while in the first round of tennis doubles the men advanced and the women faltered.

The women’s hockey team lost 0-1 to South Korea while in the preliminary stages of the sepaktakraw team event the Indian men went down fighting 1-2 and the women lost 0-3 to China.

Chandrakant Dadu Mali and Monika Laishram Devi fell short in a strong weightlifting field at the Donguan Gymnasium Wednesday, finishing 10th and seventh in their respective categories.

Geeta Rani in 85+ kg and Sarabjit in 105+ kg will be in action Friday and it will be India’s last chance to win a weightlifting medal.

It was another uneventful day for India in cue sports as Indira Gowda lost 4-5 to Thuy Vi Duon of Vietnam in the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s eight-ball pool singles event.

Swimmer Virdhaval Khade, who won a historic bronze medal Tuesday, won the third heat in the 100 metres freestyle event but, with a poor timing, failed to qualify for the finals.

Indian cyclists failed to make any impact on the final day of the track events. Atul Kumar finished 15th while Rajender Kumar Bishnoi came last in the men’s points race finals at the Guangzhou velodrome.

Jasvant lost a close fight against Indonesian Yulius Fernado 5:6 to bow out of the men’s 74 kg taekwondo event.

Sandhyarani Devi Wangkhem had to settle for a silver in wushu after she lost 0-2 the women’s sanshou 60kg final to Khadijeh AzadPour of Iran.

The 27-year-old from Manipur had assured India of a silver when she beat Paloy Barckkham of Laos 2-0 in the semifinals.

This was India’s second medal in Sanshou wushu after M. Bimoljit Singh finished with a bronze in the men’s 60kg Tuesday.

Ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh struck four goals as India warmed up for arch-rivals Pakistan with the demolition of Bangladesh in their second men’s hockey group B match.

Sandeep converted four of his five penalty corners (13th minute, 47, 63, 66), and Tushar Khandekar (2, 39) slotted a brace, while Shivendra Singh (22), Raj Pal Singh (37) and Dharamvir Singh (69) scored one each. India were leading 3-0 at the breather.

The win Wednesday has put India at the top of the table with six points.

Medal hope Saina Nehwal, who received a first round bye, outclassed Malaysian Lydia Cheah 21-15, 21-17 to move into the badminton women’s singles quarterfinals.

In the men’s singles, Arvind Bhat moved into the pre-quarters after he received a walkover from Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne in his first-round match at the Tianhe Gymnasium courts.

But Parupalli Kashyap, world ranked 31, went down in the first round after putting up a valiant fight against world No.8 Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh 14-21, 20-22.

Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh moved into the quarterfinal of the men’s 75kg boxing competition with a stunning 9-4 win over Chinese Taipei’s Yu Ting Yang at the Foshan Gymnasium.

In the quarterfinal, Vijender will face South Korea’s Deokjin Cho, who defeated Turkmenistan’s Aliasker Bashirov.

Vijender’s compatriot Vikas Krishnan lost his first round bout in the 60kg category 1-8 to Thailand’s Saylom Ardee.

Shooter Samresh Jung finished seventh with a score of 569 in the men’s 25 metres standard pistol event.

In the women’s 50 metres rifle three position event, India’s Tejaswini Sawant (569) finished 23rd while Lajja Goswami (569) was 24th. Sawant was 23rd on the basis of better perfect 10s. Chetanpreet Kaur (559) was 31st.

In tennis, Karan Rastogi and Vishnu Vardhan swept aside Hong Kong’s Michael Xiaopeng Lai and Cheuk Wai Jack Hui 6-1, 6-3. They next meet tough opponents in Jae Min Seol and Young Jun Kim of South Korea.

Rushmi Chakravarthi and Poojashree Venkatesha went down to Japanese Ryoko Fuda and Misaki Doi 3-6, 1-6 in 53 minutes in the women’ doubles.

Swimmer Khade clocked 51.25 seconds to win the heat while his compatriot Aaron Agnel DSouza was second with a timing of 52.71 secs at the Aoti Aquatics Center. They, however, failed to qualify for the final as their timing was way below the qualifying mark.

Khade had won the bronze in the men’s 50 metres butterfly here Tuesday. His medal was the first for India in swimming after 24 years.