Asian Games 2010 Day 4: India wins 3 more bronze but slips to 9th position

By Victor DSouza, Doha
From various sources
Bellevision Media Network

Tuesday, 16 November 2010: India won three more bronze with Ashish Kumar clinching the first-ever medal in gymnastics while Virdhawal Khade broke the swimming medal drought after 24 years as the contingent added three bronze to its kitty in an otherwise dismal fourth day of competitions here today. With the addition of three bronze, India`s medals tally rose to one gold, four silver and six bronze. The Chinese juggernaut continued to roll on as the hosts maintained their position atop the medals table with a whopping tally of 75-26-27 while South Korea (22-17-25) and Japan (15-34-28) were in the second and third position respectively.

 

Ashish Kumar made the country`s first foray into the gymnastics medals podium with a bronze in the men`s floor event but disappointing performances in other disciplines resulted in India slipping to the ninth position in the medals table. The 19-year-old Khade also scripted history as he became the first Indian swimmer in 24 years to clinch an Asian Games medal by notching up a bronze in the men`s 50 m butterfly event. Harika Dronavalli also clinched a bronze in the women`s individual chess. But the failure to win any gold medal meant that India could not maintain their seventh position on the medal rostrum, going down by two places.

 

Pugilist Suranjoy Singh also provided some spark to punch his way into pre-quarter finals while the shooters came a cropper for the second successive day. Suranjoy gave a resounding start to the team`s boxing campaign by entering the fly weight (52kg) pre-quarters with a thumping win over Thailand`s Chatchai Butdee but the script turned out to be quite different at the other venues where the shooters, shuttlers, lifters, men`s football team and the women`s hockey team came up with dismal performances.

 

Indian shooters drew a blank for the second successive day after they failed to qualify for the final round of the women`s 25m pistol individual event and finished a lowly seventh in the team competition. The women`s hockey team were handed a 0-3 thrashing by Japan in their second game while the paddlers endured another disappointing day with only the men`s doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha progressing to the pre-quarterfinals. The day clearly belonged to two youngsters Ashish Kumar and Khade, for their feats in gymnastics and swimming.

 

 

 

In football, India suffered a 0-5 drubbing at the hands of title contenders Japan to crash out of the tournament after qualifying to the knock-out phase of the Asian Games for the first time in 28 years. After bagging two silver and as many bronze medals, the shooters, who provided India with the golden touch in the CWG, put up a flop show and left everyone wondering what has gone wrong with them. The women`s 25m pistol individual and team was the only shooting event which featured Indians today but much to the dislike of the fans there was disappointment in store.

 

In boxing, the 24-year-old Suranjoy, who has won an astonishing seven international gold medals since April 2009, thrashed Butdee 7-2 in his and India`s opening bout at the Foshan Gymnasium here. Fresh from his seventh international gold at last month`s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Suranjoy was as usual sharp in his movement and dodged his rival`s attempted attacks craftily. Suranjoy will now be up against Juseong Kim of Korea who got the better of Kazakhstan`s Miras Zakhupov 5-3 in his opening bout.

 

In badminton, Aditi Mutatkar braved a calf injury en route to a straight-game triumph over Sri Lanka`s Thilini Jayasinghe as Indian shuttlers began their individual campaigns at the Asian Games on a bitter-sweet note. Aditi beat her rival 21-11 21-19 in just 19 minutes after gaining a comfortable 10-point leads in both games. In women`s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, fresh from their Commonwealth Games women`s doubles gold, sailed through against the Thai pair of Savitree Amitrapai and Punyada Munkitchokecharoen.

 

India made a disappointing start in the sepaktakraw event with both the men`s and women`s team losing their opening group matches. While the men`s team went down fighting 1-2 against Japan in Group B, the Indian eves cut a sorry figure in their pool match as they were routed 0-3 by Korea. The Indian duo of Jameeludd Mohammed and Ravinder Redd Sara started their beach volleyball campaign at the Asian Games on a losing note suffering a 0-2 defeat at the hands of their Japanese opponents in their opening pool match.

 

At the table tennis arena, The Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Sharath Kamal and Saha lived up to their billing as they outclassed Husain Albahrani and Mansour Alenezy of Kuwait 3-0 in their opening round encounter. In volleyball, India spanked Vietnam 3-0 in their final group B preliminary match to advance to the quarterfinals. The judo campaign came to a dismal end after Olympian Tombi Devi and Navjot Chana lost their repechage bouts to miss out on medals.

 

Medals Tally

 

 

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
China	75	26	27	128
South Korea	22	17	25	64
Japan	15	34	28	77
North Korea	3	6	9	18
Chinese Taipei	3	5	13	21
Hong Kong	3	5	3	11
Kazakhstan	2	5	9	16
Uzbekistan	2	5	6	13
India	1	4	6	11
Malaysia	1	1	3	5