Two silvers, bronze for India on sixth day of Asiad (Afternoon Lead)

GUANGZHOU - Two silvers and a bronze came India’s way on the sixth day of the Asian Games here via the rowers and a shooter, taking the country’s tally to 16.

This includes one gold, seven silver and eight bronze.

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

Uzbekistan (Sergey Tyan, Efim Kuznetsov, Botir Murodov and Yukob Khamzaev) took the bronze, pipping Kazakhstan with a timing of 6 mins 16.79s, 16.30s behind China.

The Indian team maintained a good pace right from the start and were behind China by 0.25 seconds after 500 meters. The Chinese, however, widened the gap as the race progressed. India gave them a tough fight but their timing of 1 mins 36.74s in the final 500 meters was not enough.

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

The Indian team was 3.18 seconds behind Japan (Takahiro Suda, Hideki Omoto, Yu Kataoka and Yoshinori Sato), who took the gold, clocking 6 mins 10.14s.

Hong Kong’s Shek Chin Leung, Cheong Ki Kwan, Yin Shun Liao and Mang Chiu Tang won the bronze, 4.70s behind Japan.

Vijay Kumar won a bronze in the men’s 25m centre fire pistol event, with South Korea’s Byung Taek Park notched 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 an 99.8 in the final round.

Arvind Bhat lost to Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana 19-21, 12-21 to bow out of the pre-quarterfinal of badminton men’s singles.

Bhat fought back from 4-7 down in the first game and even took the lead at 12-11. From there on it was a neck-and-neck contest as both players tested each other. The seasoned Ponsana held his nerve and closed out the game.

Having taken the lead, Boonsak, seeded sixth, tightened his grip in the second game as Bhat fizzled out.

Medal hope Saina Nehwal, seeded second, will face Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Pin in the quarterfinal later in the day.

The other Indian shuttlers in the fray Thursday are the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V. Diju, who will take on South Korean Shin Baekcheol and Lee Hyojung.

With Bhat’s loss, India’s challenge in the men’s singles ended. Parupalli Kashyap lost to Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh 14-21, 20-22 Wednesday. India players are also out of the men and women’s doubles draws.