Asian Games: Four golds take India’s tally to 14 (Roundup)

GUANGZHOU - Four golds in athletics, boxing and kabaddi came India’s way on the penultimate day of the Asian Games Friday to take the country’s tally to 14. With three silvers and four bronzes also in the kitty Friday, India’s overall medal tally rose to 64, bettering the 57 medals that had been won at the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.

With 17 silvers and 33 bronzes also adding to the tally, it was India’s best performance at the Games, leaving behind the 53 medals (10-17-26) that were won at the 2006 Doha Games.

The women’s 4X400 metres relay quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Chidananda and Mandeep Kaur, boxer Vijender Singh and the men’s and women’s kabaddi teams won golds Friday.

Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut won the silver and bronze in the women’s 5000 metres, while boxers Manpreet Singh and Santhosh Kumar Virothu claimed a silver apiece.

The athletes did the country proud, coming second only to China with 11 medals (5-2-4). Against this, China had 34 medals (12-14-8).

This was all the more remarkable considering that India had won a lone athletics gold, three silvers and four bronzes (11) at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, where the country finished with 53 medals (10-17-26).

While boxing brought in nine medals (2-3-4) the shooters and wrestlers only flattered to deceive. Indian wrestlers had won only two bronzes at Doha.

The relay quartet, which had won the gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, came on top here clocking 3:29.02 seconds.

Kazakhstan (Marina Maslyonko, Viktoriya Yalovtseva, Margarita Matsko, Olga Tereshkova) got the silver in 3:30.03 and China (Zhihui Zheng, Xiaoyin Tang, Lian Chen, Jingwen Chen) the bronze in 3:30.89.

The victory gave India its fifth gold in athletics. The women’s relay team had given India its only athletics gold at the 2006 Doha Games.

India’s Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut won the silver and bronze in the women’s 5000 metres.

Preeja recorded her personal best timing of 15:15.89 seconds and Kavita also had a personal best timing of 15:16.54. Preeja and Kavita had won the gold and silver in the women’s 10,000m.

Vijender Singh clinched the gold in the men’s 75kg category Friday to cap a stupendous performance by the Indian boxers at the Asian Games.

Vijender, who was left bitter after finishing with the bronze in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, blanked World champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan 7-0 in a lopsided bout. It was sweet revenge for the World No.1 Indian, who had lost to the Uzbek in the quarterfinals of the World Championship earlier this year.

However, the other two Indian boxers — Santhosh Kumar Virothu and Manpreet Singh — who took the ring for gold medals bouts had to content with silvers.

Santhosh was pummelled 1-16 in the 64kg final by Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan while Manpreet was thrashed 1-8 by Mohammad Ghossoun of Syria in the 91kg category.

The men’s kabaddi team won the gold for the sixth consecutive time at the Asian Games.

India beat Iran 37-20 and maintained their winning streak in the sport since its introduction in 1990.

Earlier, Indian women’s kabaddi team won its maiden Asian Games gold medal, defeating Thailand 28-14 in the final.

The Indian men’s team won a bronze in chess.

The team comprising Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Shekar Ganguly, G.N.Gopal and B.Adhiban defeated Iran (Ghaem Maghami Ehsan, Mahjoob Morteza, Toufighi Homayoon, Golizadeh Asghar) 3.5-0.5 in the ninth and last round to finish third.

China beat Philippines 3.5-0.5 in the last round to take the gold. The Philippines settled for the silver.

This is India’s second medal in chess after Harika Dronavalli won a bronze in the women’s individual round.

India got two bronze medals from the roller sports events.

Anup Kumar came third with 244.2 points in the men’s single free skating long programme behind Japan’s Shingo Nishiki (253.8) and Chia Chen Yeh of Chinese Taipei (248.4).

Anup and Avani Bharath Panchal clinched a third place finish with 222.0 in the pairs skating long programme.

China’s Yawen Lin and Yunqin Tang (245.4) got the gold while Chinese Taipei’s Tzu Hsia Weng and Li Hsin Chen (237.6) the silver.