By IANS,
Guangzhou : Bajrang Lal Takhar claimed the nation’s maiden Asiad rowing gold as Indian rowers Friday capped their best performance in the Asian Games here with five medals on a day three more medals came India’s way and more were assured in squash and boxing.
The men’s trap shooting team won a bronze, Saurav Ghoshal was assured of a squash medal and boxer Dinesh Kumar of at least a bronze. Sania Mirza stormed into the quarters of the women’s tennis singles and mixed doubles but cueist Pankaj Advani crashed out of the snooker pre-quarterfinals.
After seven days of competitions, India rose a notch to 11th place in the medal’s tally with 20, comprising two gold, eight silver and 10 bronze.
China head the table with 234 medals (125-54-55), followed by South Korea-129 (43-36-50) and Japan-124 (24-49-51). Iran, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Malaysia are the other countries above India.
The Indian men beat fancied Japan 3-2 while women put aside the Maldives 3-0 in the volleyball competition, but none of the four Indian golfers, including medal prospect Rashid Khan, could break par. Rashid dropped to fourth, and so did the Indian team.
The Indian women had a disappointing start to the archery competition, finishing fifth overall in the recurve team qualification.
The women’s hockey team walloped Thailand 13-0 but this was of little consequence as they are already out of contention for the final round.
Bajrang Lal triumphed in the men’s single sculls event, while Pratima Puhana and Pramila Prava Minz became the first Indian women to win an Asian Games rowing medal with their bronze in the pair rowing event. India also bagged the silver in the men’s eight rowing event.
Takhar, who also gave India its first Asiad rowing silver medal at Doha four years ago, clocked seven minutes 4.78 seconds to win the second gold for India in the 2010 Asian Games after cueist Advani.
Pratima and Prava Pramila clocked seven minutes 47.50 seconds to win the bronze behind China and Kazakhstan in the 2,000 metres race.
The Indian team comprising Anil Kumar, Girraj Singh, Saji Thomas, Lokesh Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Ranjit Singh, Satish Joshi and Jenil Krishnan, finished the 2,000 metres race with a timing of five minutes 49.50 seconds in men’s eight rowing event for the silver.
On Thursday, India had won two silver medals in rowing in the men’s four and lightweight men’s four rowing events.
The trap trio of Manavjit Singh Sandhu (119), Mansher Singh (113) and Zorawar Singh Sandhu (109) won the bronze with a total score of 341 at the Aoti Shooting Range, but Manavjit missed an individual medal in a shoot-off.
Manavjit, the 2006 world champion, was the only Indian to qualify for the final and missed the bronze in a shoot-off after he was tied for the third spot with Lebanon’s Joe Salem and Abdo al Yazgie, having shot 136 points. Salem won the bronze with a score of two while Manavjit failed to score in the shoot-off.
Boxer Dinesh Kumar assured India of a medal as he entered the semi-finals of the men’s 81kg event with a 10-6 win over South Korea’s Jinho Heo.
Saurav Ghoshal blanked compatriot Siddharth Suchde 3-0 to book a place in the semi-finals of the men’s singles. World no.25 Saurav cruised to the last four stage with a convincing 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 victory over Siddharth at the Asian Games Town Gymnasium. He next plays top-seed Mohammad Azlan Iskandar of Malaysia.
However, hopes of a medal in the women’s singles evaporated as Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa surrendered to their Malaysian opponents in the quarterfinals.
Dipika, ranked 36th, pulled off a game against World no.1 Nicol David before losing 8-11, 11-7, 6-11, 4-11.
Joshna lost a tough rubber against World No.16 Low Wee Wern. The Indian started well by winning the first two sets against Low, but could not hold on to the lead and went down 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 3-11
Sania, a silver medallist at the 2006 Doha Games, got the better of China’s Shuai Zheng 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the last 8 stage of the women’s singles. Later, Sania and Vishnu Vardhan beat China’s Shengnan Sun and Bai Yan 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(10) for a place in the prequarters.
Pankaj Advani could not replicate his billiards performance in the snooker event as he lost 1-4 to Junhui Ding of China in the pre-quarterfinals.
Advani, who won the gold in billiards singles, found it hard to compete with the top-seed Junhui and lost 11-100, 86-0, 1-84, 0-88, 7-88 in the men’s snooker singles.
The Indian women’s hockey team crushed Thailand 13-0 but the emphatic victory Friday came too late in the day as they are already out of the contention for a final berth in the Asian Games.
India converted four of their 11 penalty corners and the rest were field goals. India led 7-0 in the first half.