By IANS,
Guangzhou: A gold and silver in tennis and a bronze in archery took India’s medal tally to 36 to retain the eighth spot on the tenth day of competitions at the Asian Games here Monday while nine more medals were assured in boxing.
Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh claimed the tennis men’s doubles gold with a sensational victory over a higher ranked Chinese pair, but the Sania Mirza-Vishnu Vardhan pair had to settle for the silver in the mixed doubles. The men’s archery team won a bronze.
Santhosh Kumar became the seventh boxer to make the semifinals in the men’s section and at least two of the pugilists are likely to claim a gold while the others will win at least a bronze.
World champion boxer Mary Kom, as also Kavita Goyat also headed for a podium finish in the women’s section, while Somdev will pick up at least a silver in the tennis men’s singles.
It was, however, a disappointing day for India in the track and field competitions as none of the athletes made it to the podium. This was a day after India bagged two golds and a silver in athletics.
India’s 36 medals comprise six gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze.
China head the table with 304 medals (154-77-73), followed by South Korea-178 (61-51-66) and Japan-158 (32-59-67). Iran, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Thailand are the other countries above India.
Sixth seeded Somdev-Sanam Singh combined well to defeat second seeded Chinese Maoxin Gong and Zhe Li 3-7, 7-6 (4), 1-0(8).
The Sania-Vishnu pair had to settle for a silver following their 6-4, 1-6, 0-1 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Yung Jan Chan and Tsung Hua Yang.
Sania, who had won a gold with Leander Paes in the mixed doubles at the 2006 Doha Asiad, won a bronze in the singles event here.
The Indian archers, who lost to South Korea 216-222 in the semifinal, beat Chinese Taipei 220-218 in a closely contested match at the Aoti Archery Range.
The Indian team of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champiya opened up a five point lead in the first round after which they led 57-52. The second round was tied at 56 each, but Chinese Taipei came back strongly in the third round scoring 58 while India managed 53.
Both the teams were tied at 166 each with just one round left. Indian archers held their nerve and shot 54 while the Taipei team got 50.
The women’s team had won its maiden bronze medal Sunday beating Chinese Taipei 218-217.
Boxer Santhosh beat Tuvshinbat Bayamba of Mongolia in the quarterfinals of the 64 kg category. They were tied 3-3 after three rounds but the Indian was declared the winner by the technical bench. Santhosh next plays Thailand’s Wuttichai Masuk.
Santhosh joins Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh (75 kg), Dinesh Kumar (81 kg), Suranjoy Singh (52 kg), Paramjeet Samota (+91 kg), Vikas Krishan (60 kg) and Manpreet Singh (91 kg) in the semifinals.
Mary Kom crushed Meng Chieh Ping of Chinese Taipei 16-2 to move into the semifinals of the 48-51 kg event.
Mary Kom, who got a bye in the first round, will next face China’s Ren Cancan, who defeated Nepal’s Sanju Lama 10-0, for a place in the final.
The Manipuri mother of twins is a strong contender for the gold and proved her supremacy with a power-packed performance against Ping.
Kavita Goyat (69-75kg) staved off a strong challenge from Kazahkhstan’s Marina Volnova to win 8-7 in the quarterfinals.
Somdev entered the men’s singles final defeating fourth-seeded Japanese Tatsuma Ito 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 in the tennis competition.
Somdev plays top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the final for the gold. Istomin outclassed third-seeded Japanese Go Soeda 6-1, 6-0.
Indian men blanked Japan 3-0 while the women thrashed China by the same margin in the squash team event.
In the men’s event, Sourav Ghoshal gave India the lead, defeating Yuta Fukui 11-6, 11-2, 11-6.
Siddharh Suchde then made it 2-0 with a 11-5, 12-10, 11-6 defeat of Shinnosuke Tsukue while Harinder Sandhu kept the slate clean, getting the better of Takanori Shimizu 11-9, 11-7, 12-10 in the Pool B contest.
It was the Indian men’s second win after beating Qatar 3-0. Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Korea are the other teams in the pool.
In women’s pool B, Joshna Chinappa defeated Li Jiang 11-1, 11-7, 11-1.
Dipika Pallikal then defeated Dongjin Li 11-2, 11-5, 11-6 before Anaka Alankamony beat Gu Jinyue 11-7, 11-2, 11-5.
The other teams in India’s pool are Hong Kong and China.
On the flip side, India lost their last women’s hockey league match to China 1-2 to finish their pool engagements in fourth place.
Indian cyclists Sombir and Atul Kumar finished 27th and 32nd in the individual road race competition.