Asian Games: Two silvers, bronze for India; shuttler Saina crashes out (Intro Roundup)

GUANGZHOU - Two silvers came India’s way in rowing and a bronze in shooting at the Asian Games Thursday, while two medals were in sight in golf and one in boxing. Badminton medal hope Saina Nehwal crashed out of the women’s singles while tennis star Sania Mirza advanced.

After six days of competitions, India slipped further to 12th place in the medal’s tally with a mere 16, comprising one gold, seven silver and eight bronze.

China head the table with 202 medals (109-47-46), followed by South Korea-109 (37-30-42) and Japan-106 (21-45-40). North Korea, Iran, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and the Philippines are the other countries above India.

Nehwal went down to Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip 8-21, 21-8, 19-21 in a hard-fought match that stretched late into the night.

Pankaj Advani scraped through 4-3 against Nisar Ahmed Safuddin of Qatar while Aditya scored an easy win over Lebanese Mazen Berjaoui 4-0 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s snooker singles.

However, India’s challenge in the table tennis event ended as Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj lost in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals, while Arvind Bhat bowed out of the pre-quarterfinals of the badminton men’s singles.

The Indian effort in the sepak takraw event also fizzled out with both men and women losing by similar 0-3 margins — while the men went down to Malaysia, the women bowed out to Thailand.

Rowers Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh and Jenil Krishnan won a silver in the men’s four event with an overall timing of 6 mins 16.79 seconds — 10.39secs behind the gold medallist Chinese quartet of Sun Zhaowen, Wu Lin, Li Dongjian and Liu Kun.

In the lightweight men’s four, Lokesh Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Rajesh Kumar Yadav and Satish Joshi finished second with a timing of 6 mins 13.32secs.

Shooter Vijay Kumar, who won three golds at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, settled for a bronze in the men’s 25m centre fire pistol event, with South Korea’s Byung Taek Park notching up the gold and China’s Yadong Liu the silver.

Vijay shot a total of 583, while Park and Liu shot 586 and 585, respectively. India’s Omkar Singh finished eighth with a score of 580 while Harpreet Singh was 32nd with a score of 563.

Gagan Narang, who had won two silver medals here, finished fourth in the men’s rifle 3 position. Narang fired a total of 1261.8, with a 99.8 in the final round.

Rashid Khan’s brilliant four-under 68, which also equalled the best round on the second day at the Asian Games golf at the Dragon Lake golf course, saw India leap into medal contention in both the men’s individual and team events.

The wiry 19-year-old Khan, a former multiple Faldo Series Asia winner, who delayed his plans to turn professional to play the Asian Games, shot a 68 and was at third place at five-under 139. Put alongside his first round 71, he was five-under for 36 holes and well in sight of a medal.

The Indian golfing team moved up to third, just one shot behind the Philippines. Korea is way ahead at 14-under (418) while Philippines is at three-over (435). India is four-over (436). The best three scores out of four are counted each day.

Boxer Paramjeet Samota assured himself of a medal as he moved into the semifinal with a 9-4 win over South Korea’s Sungkeun Park in the men’s +91kg quarterfinal.

Samota won the first round 5-2 and came down heavily on Park in the second round, where he won four points while the South Korean bagged just two. Samota’s right hook nearly knocked out the South Korean and the referee had to stop the contest midway into the second round at the Foshan Gymnasium.

World No. 25 Saurav Ghoshal, India’s highest ranked squash player, scored a comfortable 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 win over Ammar Altemimi of Kuwait and next plays compatriot Siddharth Suchde for a place in the last eight Friday. Suchde beat Dick Lau of Hong Kong 9-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-4.

In the women’s singles, Dipika Pallikal, ranked 36, defeated Jinyue Gu of China 11-4, 12-10, 11-1 in the opening round. Dipika has a tougher task in hand as she takes on Malaysian World No. 1 Nicol David in the next match Friday.

Thirty-seventh-ranked Joshna Chinappa, too, won in straight sets. She beat Jemyca Aribado of Phillipines 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 and now faces World o.16 Low Wee Wern of Malaysia.

Sania Mirza powered into the women’s singles second round while it was curtains for Poojashree Venkatesha at the Asian Games here Thursday.

Sania, ranked 166, outclassed Wing Yau Venise Chan of Hong Kong 6-1, 6-0 in 50 minutes and next faces 91-ranked Shuai Zhang of China, who is seeded sixth.

Shuai had defeated Sania in the quarterfinals of the Guangzhou Open in September.

Poojashree went down to seventh-seeded Kai Chen Chang of Chinese Taipei 2-6, 2-6.

In the mixed doubles, India’s Sanam Singh and Rushmi Charkravathi overcame Uzbekistan’s Vaja Uzakov and Nigina Abduraimova 7-5, 6-3 and next play seventh-seeded Japan’s Yurika Sema and Hiroki Kondo.