INDIAN MEN & WOMEN WIN IN KABADDI
India made a resounding start in kabaddi competition of the 17th Asian Games with both the men's and women's teams thrashing Bangladesh in their opening preliminary round matches at the Songdo Global University Gymnasium. Indian women's team was the first to get across their Bangladeshi counterparts as they trounced their neighbours 29-18 in a Pool A match. The men's team then brushed aside the Bangladeshi men 30-15 to start their campaign on a positive note in Pool A, which also consists of Thailand and Pakistan. In the men's team, India dished out a dominating show as they pocketed a huge 10-point lead after finishing the first half 16-6 ahead. The women's match, on the other hand, rode on their brilliant first half were they zoomed to 22-5 at the interval.
SPIKERS GIVE HOSTS TOUGH FIGHT
The Indian men's volleyball team put up a spirited fight against the much-fancied South Korea before losing 22-25 25-27 18-25 in a closely contested group E play-off match here on Sunday. While India may have lost the encounter in three straight sets, they gave a tough fight to the host nation in each of the three with the first two going down to the wire. What cost India the match was off-form of 6ft 9 inch spiker GR Vaishnav, who could garner only four points for his team. While veteran Punjab player Gurinder Singh was impressive at the net with 13 points, Naveen Raja Jacob also got 10 points with his deceptive drops. libero Kanagaraj Sivasubramanium had an inconsistent day with a few good retrievals while there were certain points where he was not in a position to defend forceful spikes from Kwangin Jeon and Park Chulwoo.
WOMEN lOSE RECURVE BRONZE PlAY-OFF
The Indian recurve archers wrapped up a throughly disappointing performance at the 17th Asian Games after the women's team lost a tense bronze medal match to Japan in a shoot-off here on Sunday. Japan started off the block in style by clinching the opening set of six arrows shot by each team 54-53 to take a 2-0 lead before India took the next two by 58-55 and 51-50 to lead 4-2 only for the former to fight back and force a tie at 4-4 by clinching the last set 58-55. This resulted in the the shoot-off in which each player shot one arrow at the target. In the shoot-off, the Japanese trio fired two 10s and a seven to log 27 points. However, the first two Indians — l Bombayla Devi and laxmirani Majhi — could shoot only an eight each.
MANE SETTlES FOR FOURTH POSITION IN GOlF
Udayan Mane came agonisingly close to winning a bronze medal before ending one stroke off the third-place finish as he was tied fourth in the men's individual golf in the Asian Games here today. Mane, whose second round 66 had put him into medal contention, shot a three-under 69 and ended at 11-under 277. Chinese Taipei's Pan Cheng-tsung shot one under-71 in the last round to take the gold medal by a convincing two-shot margin over Korea's Kim Namhun (68). Interestingly, Korea's Youm Eunhno, who was on Pan's heels and just one shot behind, crashed to a 76 in final round and went out of medals.
Indian Paddlers Reach Six Out Of 11 Finals
After hiring high quality international boats on reaching here, the Indian men and women paddlers reached six out of eleven finals in canoeing and kayaking at the 17th Asian Games here today. The Indians entered the finals of five men's and one women's events, with Gaurav Tomar even winning his semifinal race in the men's 1000m C1 event at the Hanam Misari Center and the duo of S Ajit Kumar and Rajiv Rawat taking the second place in men's 1000m C2. Tomar finished ahead of Korea's Kim Taeun by overtaking the home country paddler over the last 250m. Expressing satisfaction at India's performance, team manager and secretary general of the national canoeing and kayaking federation Balbir Singh Khushwaha said that they had infact hired 'Nelo and Pastex' boats which are used by 99.99 per cent of racers in the world. The official said that earlier too Indian paddlers had made the finals of some events in the Asian Games but not after competing in such a tough competition. The paddlers will play their match on Monday.