Asian Games 2010 Day 6: Rowers scoop two silver as India pick up three medals

By Victor D’Souza, Doha
From various sources
Bellevision Media Network

Thursday, 18 November 2010: The rowers provided an unexpected boost to India`s medal hunt in the 16th Asian Games with two silver medals but poor form continued to haunt the fancied shooters with Gagang Narang flopping yet again on the sixth day of competitions here on Thursday. With the addition of two silvers and a bronze, India took their medals tally to one gold, seven silver and eight bronze but the failure to win the coveted gold has resulted in a continuous slide in the position on the table in the last few days.

 

Tennis star Sania Mirza had a trouble-free day as she sailed into the pre-quarterfinals of the women`s singles with a straight-set demolition of Hong Kong`s Chan Wing Yau Venise while the racqueters got off to a good start with both men`s and women`s team progressing to the quarterfinals of the squash singles event. On the gloomier side, the Indian challenge in table tennis ended with Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj bowing out in the pre quarterfinals of the men`s singles event. It was a similar story in men`s singles badminton with Arvind Bhatt crashing out out in the pre-quarterfinals.

 

Apart from the silver-winning feat of the rowers, shooter Vijay Kumar bagged a bronze medal and Paramjeet Samota assured himself of at least a bronze after punching his way into the semifinals of super heavyweight on yet another mediocre day for India`s large contingent. It was the men`s rowing four team of Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh and Jenil Krishnan which began the silver collection as they completed the distance of 2000m in 6:16.79, behind China (6:06.40). Uzbekistan won bronze with a timing of 6:22.70.

 

 

After three barren days at the Aoti shooting range, Vijay Kumar notched up his second and India`s fifth medal in shooting by bagging a bronze in men`s 25m center fire pistol but Commonwealth Games hero Narang missed out on a bronze by a whisker in 50m rifle 3 positions. The other two Indians in fray in the same event, Omkar Singh and Harpreet Singh finished eighth and 32nd respectively. This is Vijay`s second medal in shooting, having won a bronze in 10m air pistol individual event. Narang, who gave the country big hopes on the opening day of the competitions with a double silver haul (individual and team) in the men`s 10m air rifle event, disappointed again in the 50m range.

 

At the Aoti Tennis centre, unseeded Sania needed just 50 minutes to whip Chan 6-1 6-0 with her booming forehands and effective backhands to book a meeting with Chinese sixth seed Zhang Shuai for a place in quarterfinals. Compatriots Sanam Singh and Rushmi Chakravarthi advanced to the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals. In badminton, medal contender Saina Nehwal remained the only Indian left in the competition. Aravind Bhat crashed out of men`s singles event while mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju also made an exit.

 

In boxing, Paramjeet Samota assured India of a medal after punching his way into the semifinals of super heavyweight category while Suranjoy Singh survived a tense bout to book a berth in the quarters of flyweight division. A second medal eluded India in the swimming competitions as its men`s 4x100m medley relay team finished a disappointing sixth in the final. In squash, the duo of Saurav Ghosal and Siddharth Suchde won their respective second round matches in the men`s event, while Chennai girls Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa thrashed their rivals with identical 3-0 scorelines to make it to the last-eight stage of the individual events.

 

Indian golfer Rashid Khan brought home an improved card of four-under 68 to lie tied third after the second round of Asian Games` individual golf competition. India`s campaign in table tennis ended with star paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj bowing out in the pre-quarterfinals of the men`s singles. Indian women suffered a 0-3 drubbing at the hands of North Korea in their opening match of the volleyball while the campaign ended in the sepaktakraw event with both the men`s and women`s team losing their third consecutive group matches at Haizhu sports centre.

 

Medals Tally

 

 

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
China	109	47	47	203
South Korea	37	30	42	109
Japan	21	45	40	106
North Korea	5	7	11	23
Iran	5	5	11	21
Hong Kong	4	8	5	17
Kazakhstan	4	7	15	26
Chinese Taipei	4	5	20	29
Uzbekistan	3	9	10	22
Malaysia	3	3	4	10
Philippines	2	1	4	7
India	1	7	8	16