Asian Games 2010 Day 11: Somdev creates history with gold, India maintains 8th spot
By Victor D’Souza, Doha
From various sources
Bellevision Media Network
Tuesday, 23 November 2010: Somdev Devvarman created history by becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal in the men’s singles tennis event of the Asian Games while discus thrower Krishna Poonia bagged a bronze as India claimed three more medals to maintain their 8th spot on the 11th day of competitions here on Tuesday. With the addition of three medals, India’s medal haul climbed to 7 gold, 12 silver and 20 bronze. China was miles ahead on top of the medals table with a whopping tally of 165-85-79 while South Korea (64-55-74) and Japan (34-64-68) kept the second and third positions respectively.
Second seed Somdev, who had won a gold in the men’s doubles event along with Sanam Singh yesterday, upset top seed and world number 44 Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-1 6-2 in the lop-sided summit clash here to achieve the historic feat. Poonia, who had bagged the gold in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, put up a below par show in women’s discus to take the bronze while heptathlete G G Pramila also secured a bronze on an otherwise disappointing day for the Indians.
It was heartbreak for the Indian men’s hockey team after they suffered a shocking 3-4 defeat at the hands of lower ranked Malaysia in the semifinal while the shooters, cylists and grapplers also failed to make much of an impact. The spotlight was on young Somdev as he entered history books with his superb win in the final over the top seed Uzbek who seemed totally off-colour.
India’s hopes of winning a gold medal in men’s hockey event came crashing down after they suffered a 3-4 defeat at against Malaysia. After the spectacular start to India’s campaign in athletics, the last two days have been quite a damp squib. Indian women were on course for a chess medal as they scored an easy victory over Bangladesh to remain on joint top along with China after six rounds of the chess competition.
In archery, Deepika Kumari missed out on a medal as she lost to Kwon Un Sil of North Korea in the bronze-medal play-off of the women’s individual archery event. Dharmender Dalal cut a sorry figure as he lost his bronze medal play-off match in the men’s 120kg Greco-Roman wrestling competitions to round off another disappointing day for Indian grapplers. Another Indian grappler Vinod Kumar bowed out of the competition much earlier after he was outplayed 0-3 in the opening round by Tsogtbaatar Damdinbazar of Mangolia.
In squash, Indian eves qualified for the semifinals of the team event despite a 0-3 drubbing at the hands of Hong Kong while the men’s team made the last-four grade with a crushing 3-0 win over South Korea here today. Indian shooters will have a tough task at hand to finish on the podium after all three of them ended day one of the skeet qualification round at the middle of the points table. In cycling, Indian eves came a cropper in the Individual road race competition with Mahita Mohan and Pana Chaudhary finishing 20th and 26th in the event.
Medals Tally
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
China |
165 |
85 |
79 |
329 |
South Korea |
64 |
55 |
74 |
193 |
Japan |
34 |
64 |
68 |
166 |
Chinese Taipei |
12 |
11 |
29 |
52 |
Iran |
12 |
9 |
15 |
36 |
Hong Kong |
8 |
14 |
14 |
36 |
Kazakhstan |
7 |
14 |
26 |
47 |
India |
7 |
12 |
20 |
39 |
Thailand |
7 |
7 |
26 |
40 |
Malaysia |
6 |
13 |
8 |
27 |