Asian Games 2010 Day 3: India adds a silver and bronze to its tally

By Victor DSouza, Doha
From various sources
Bellevision Media Network

Monday, 15 November 2010: With the addition of just a silver and bronze medal, India took their overall medals tally to one gold, four silver and three bronze to drop to the seventh spot on the roster after being in the fifth position on the first two days. Powerhouse China expectedly did the bulk of the gold collection to consolidate their position atop the table with a tally of 53-20-19 while South Korea (18-13-17) and Japan (13-25-23) were in the second and third position respectively.

 

The Indian men’s snooker team lost 1-3 to China and had to be content with a silver at the Asian Games here on Monday, while the men’s hockey team began their campaign on an upbeat note with a 7-0 demolition of Hong Kong. In tennis, India had to be content with the bronze medal as they went down 1-2 against Chinese Taipei in a marathon men’s team tennis championship semi final rubber in Asian Games tennis at the Aoti courts with top singles player Somdev Dev Varman winning his tie comfortably.

 

The shooters, however, disappointed, finishing a lowly fifth in the men’s and women’s team event of the 50 metre rifle prone and none of them qualified for the final of the individual event. Weightlifter K. Ravi Kumar could not replicate his gold medal performance of the Commonwealth Games and finished a disappointing fifth in the men’s 69kg category. India’s Sharath Kamal and Shamini Kumaresan beat the Vietnamese pair of Quang Linh Dinh and Thi Tam Luong 3-1 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the table tennis mixed doubles event.

 

In swimming, Veerdhawal Khade qualified for the final of the 50 metres freestyle event but missed the bronze by a whisker, finishing fourth. India’s challenge in soft tennis ended after they lost both their mixed doubles first round matches. The cueist trio of Yasin Merchant, Aditya Kumar, Brijesh Damani went down to Junhui Ding, Liang Wenbo and Tian Pengfei 16-70, 51-46, 27-68, 0-96. Earlier on Monday, they had advanced to the title contest with ease, defeating Pakistan 3-0.

 

 

 

 

India began their Group B hockey campaign with Bharat scoring in the second minute and opening up the floodgates against a hapless Hong Kong. Drag-flick specialist Sandeep Singh (4th minute, 18th) then converted two penalty corners, before the free-flowing Indian attack toyed with the Hong Kong defence with relentless forays. Sarvanjit Singh (22nd) scored another goal to make it 4-0 before the breather. India will next take on Bangladesh Wednesday and will then meet tougher opponents Pakistan and Japan in the Group.

 

Gagan Narang (587), Hariom Singh (590) and Surendra Singh Rathod (586) shot a total of 1,763 at the Aoti Shooting Range and all three failed to make the cut for the individual round. In the women’s event, world champion Tejaswini Sawant (588), Meena (586) and Lajja Gauswami (585) finished fifth with a score of 1,759 points. Ravi Kumar, who won a gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, was one of the medal prospects in weightlifting.

 

In table tennis, the other Indian pair of Amalraj Anthony and Madhurika Patkar lost to Chih Yuan Chang and Yi Hua Huang of Chinese Taipei 0-3 to bow out at the Guangzhou Gymansium. Sharath and Shamini faltered in the second game but eventually prevailed over Quang and Thi 11-3, 4-11, 14-12, 12-10. They next play Seiya Kishikawa and Ai Fukuhara of Japan in the round of 16 on Tuesday.

 

India’s top paddler Sharath along with Subhajit Saha will play their first round doubles match on Tuesday. The duo won the gold in the Delhi Commonwealth Games beating higher-ranked Gao Ning and Yang Zi of Singapore in the finals. The Indian challenge in the team event ended Sunday as the men and women lost in the quarter-finals.

 

Medals Tally

 

 

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
China	53	20	19	92
South Korea	18	13	17	48
Japan	13	25	23	61
Chinese Taipei	2	3	9	14
Hong Kong	2	3	2	7
North Korea	1	4	9	14
India	1	4	3	8
Malaysia	1	1	3	5
Philippines	1	0	3	4
Macau	1	0	0	1