JOIN USIndian paddlers enjoyed an all-win day on Tuesday as country’s top doubles duo of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj reached the men’s doubles third round of the Asian Games on Tuesday.
Amalraj and Kamal unexpectedly lost the first game before taming the Nepal’s Purshottam Bajracharya and Amar Lal Malla 6-11, 11-5, 11-8, 12-10.
Also booking a third round berth in the men’s doubles was the pair of Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh as they took just 15 minutes to disptach Yemen’s Omar Ahmed Ali and Mohammed Fahd Gubran 12-10, 11-5, 11-6.
In the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals, Amalraj and Madhurika Patkar rallied to beat Japan’s Seiya Kishikawa and Ai Fukuhara 5-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
Grapplers disappoint
After a fine performance by India in the freestyle category, the Greco-Roman grapplers did not have the kind of start they would have liked as all three wrestlers fighting on the day failed to finish on the podium.
Krishankant Yadav had a great opportunity to finish third on the podium but he went down to Iran’s Saeid Abdvali 0-3 in the bronze medal play-off round in men’s 71kg Greco-Roman wrestling.
Earlier, two more Indians in the fray — Ravinder Singh and Harpreet Singh — lost their respective quarterfinal bouts to crash out of the tournament.
While Ravinder was defeated by Kazakhstan’s Almat Kebispayev 0-3 in a ‘decision by points’ verdict in the the 59kg category, Harpreet lost 1-3 to Uzbekistan’s Saldadze Besiki in 80kg division.
Eves finish eighth
India went down against Thailand 30-31 after a penalty shoot-out to finish eighth in the women’s handball competition.
India took the first half 14-12 before Thailand fought back in the second to win it with an identical scoreline and level the match. Thailand then edged out their opponents 5-4 in the shoot-out to finish seventh in the tournament.
Mairaj misses bronze
Mairaj Ahmad Khan narrowly missed out on a place in the bronze medal contest after he finished fifth in men’s skeet semifinals. In the 1st competition stage semifinal, Mairaj shot 11, two less than fourth-placed Chinese’s Jin Di at the Gyeonggido Shooting Range.
Sepak takraw teams lose
The Indian sepaktakraw teams lost all their matches in the preliminary regu stage.Indian men were outplayed by South Korea 13-21, 6-21 before going down 22-24, 18-21 against Malaysia later in the day at Bucheon Gymnasium.The women’s team lost 16-21, 14-21 for its second straight loss and now lie fourth and last in the group.