Asian Games: India slip to 16th despite a silver and a bronze on Day 7

September 27, 2014

Incheon, Sep 27: The men's pistol team clinched a silver medal, while Sandeep Sejwal scooped a rare bronze in swimming but India slipped to the 16th position in the overall standings with a tally of 17 medals on the seventh day of competitions in the 17th Asian Games on Friday.

Vijay KumarThe pistol team, spearheaded by London Olympic Games silver medallist Vijay Kumar and including Pemba Tamang and Gurpreet Singh, clinched the second place with a total score of 1740, two behind gold medallists China, in the 25m centre fire pistol competition.

The 25-year-old Sejwal provided some much-needed boost to the Indian swimming contingent by grabbing a bronze in the 50m breaststroke event after topping his heats.

There was some more good news from the squash arena after both the men's and women's teams were assured of at least silver medals after making the finals of their respective competitions.

On the whole, it again turned out to be a day of mixed fortunes for the Indian contingent which saw its star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap being knocked out of the singles competition along with the archers, who bowed out of the individual recurve event.

The women's hockey team kept themselves in medal contention with a 6-1 win over Malaysia.

With the addition of two more medals, India dropped a rung to 16th in the tally with a haul of one gold, two silver and 14 bronze medal so far. China continued to be at the top with 179 medals (91-49-39), followed by South Korea (31-37-36) and Japan (30-42-35).

The day started rather well with the shooters delivering a silver. In fact, had the men's trio equalled the Chinese, they would have secured a gold as their number of inner tens was much higher than their formidable rivals.

Vijay took part here despite being troubled by cervical spondylitis for which he is set to undergo surgery soon after returning home.

It was the eighth medal that the shooters have won from the Games -- one gold, one silver and six bronze medals -- all but two of them coming in team events.

Barring Jitu Rai, only Abhinav Bindra has managed to win an individual medal in Incheon, an indication of how competitive shooting has been.

The Indian women's team, comprising Lajja Gauswami, 44-year-old Anjali Bhagwat and Tejaswini Muley finished sixth in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Team Finals.

Indian squash players, however, continued their splendid showing. If the women's team comprising Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal and Anaka Alankamony outplayed their South Korean opponents 2-0 then Mahesh Mangaonkar, Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu also eased past Kuwait 2-0.

Ghosal has already added a historic silver to the medal list -- a first in the Asian Games squash -- in the men's singles event, though the Kolkata-born player was disappointed to lose the gold to Kuwait's Abdullah Almezayen.

Dipika, on the other hand, has won a bronze medal in the women's singles event, also a first for Indian squash.

In the swimming pool, Sejwal topped his heats by clocking 28.25s before holding on to the third spot in the final race with a timing of 28.26s.

It was a bitter-sweet day in the boxing ring where continental champion Shiva Thapa (56kg) was barely tested as he advanced to the quarterfinals but it was curtains for comeback-man Akhil Kumar (60kg) after he lost an edge-of-the-seat last-16 bout.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals was multiple-times national champion Kuldeep Singh (81kg) at the Seonhak Gymnasium.

However, in what came as a shock for the Indian badminton fans, Saina and Kashyap fell by the wayside after losing their respective women's and men's singles matches.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kashyap failed to pass the Asiad test as he lost to World No.1 Lee Chong Wei 0-2 in the pre-quarterfinals at the Gyeyang Gymnasium, while Saina fizzled out after winning the first game against China's Yihan Wang 21-18 9-21 7-21 in her quarterfinal encounter.

India's K Srikanth also lost out in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals after losing a hard-fought battle against Wanho Son of South Korea 2-1 in an hour and seven minutes.

It was heartbreak for India's mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri, who lost a hard fought battle in the quarterfinals against Singapore duo of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo 21-18 21-23 21-15 in under 50 minutes.

In the men's doubles quarterfinals, Attri and Sumeeth Reddy were outplayed by the Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-12 21-19 in 32 minutes.

The fancied Indian recurve archers cut a sorry figure in the individual events but the country is still in with a chance of bagging a bronze medal in the women's team category.

The women's recurve team -- comprising Deepika Kumari, L Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi -- is still in fray for a medal after making the semifinals.

In tennis, Sanam Singh recovered from a sluggish start to move to the men's singles quarterfinals and later combined with Saketh Myneni to seal a place in the men's doubles last-eight as well.

Ranked just inside top-400 at 397, Sanam beat 190th ranked Chung, 7-5 6-1 the third round, which lasted one hour and 24 minutes at Yeorumul Tennis Courts.

Also advancing to the men's singles last-eight was Yuki Bhambri, who defeated Indonesia's Christopher Rungkat 6-3 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes in his third round contest.

A similar dominating performance was dished out by fifth seeds Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare in the women's doubles second round as they blanked Mongolia's Bolor Enkhbayar and Gotov Dulguunjargal 6-0 6-0 in just 35 minutes.

However, Ankita Raina had a disappointing outing as she crashed out of women's singles with a 2-6 6-4 1-6 defeat against fourth seed Japanese Eri Hozumi in the third round, lasting one hour and 55 minutes.

With Ankita's defeat, India's challenge has ended in women's singles. Ankita, though, is still in fray in the mixed doubles with Divij Sharan.

In hockey, the Indian women's team produced an inspired performance to thrash Malaysia 6-1 to qualify for the semi-finals.

For India, Rani Rampal (4th minute, 20th) and Jaspreet Kaur (9th, 39th) score two goals each, while Namita Toppo (17th) and Vandana Kataria (50th) were the other goal getters.

Malaysia's lone goal was scored by skipper Nadia Abdul Rahman from a penalty corner.

Indian eves in all likelihood will face last edition's silver medallist Korea in the semi-finals on Sunday as the hosts are presently leading Pool B and are expected to finish as the toppers.

On the golf course, Udayan Mane tamed the windy conditions to put himself in medal contention with a superb six-under 66, which left him tied third at the midway stage.

Mane, one of the four players to card 66 in the second round, is eight-under 136 and three shots behind the new leader local 17-year-old lad Youm Eunho.

But there was disappointment in volleyball. Indian men spikers gave a gritty fight against last edition's silver medallists Iran before going down in straight games in their final preliminary round match.

The Indians, who have already advanced to the next round (Play-off Group stage) after winning their earlier two matches, lost 22-25 22-25 18-25 against their more fancied opponents in a 71-minute Group C preliminary round contest at Songnim Gymnasium.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 20,2020

Dhaka, Jun 20: Former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza on Saturday tested positive for coronavirus.

The skipper had gone for a coronavirus Test last week, and now his reports have come back as positive, ESPNCricinfo reported.

As per a report in ESPNCricinfo, it is not known how Mortaza contracted the virus.

Mashrafe, also a member of the parliament from Narail 2 constituency, had stepped down as the ODI captain of the country in March this year.

Covid-19 cases have crossed 1,00,000 mark in Bangladesh and the government is now planning area-wise lockdown.

Bangladesh was slated to face Sri Lanka in July in a three-Test series and the side would have later hosted New Zealand in August, but both series look unlikely now.

The Asia Cup, scheduled for September, is also uncertain due to the coronavirus.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited "password glitch" as the reason for delay.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players' failure to submit whereabouts.

"There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf," Agarwal said. "Now athletes in some discipline aren't educated enough or do not have access to internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up

"They use assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted responsibility of uploading their whereabouts," Agarwal said.

He said cricketers too at times find it tough to complete the process on their own. "Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don't have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts." So why didnt BCCI upload the the three-month whereabouts this time?

"Well they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved," Agarwal added. NADA DG added that "BCCI's explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here."

While country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

While BCCI has "officially gagged" its employees from talking to the media, it couldn't be ascertained that why as normal a glitch as a password error took days to resolve. A BCCI veteran, who has been privy to cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

"This was lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. Some of the names have also engaged in multiple instagram chats and podcasts which their agents are managing," he said.

"If cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing password, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. "Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who's responsible," he added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
January 9,2020

Atlanta, Jan 9: Top tennis stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams will be playing an exhibition match to raise funds for Australia's bushfire relief.

Apart from these three, Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas have also confirmed their availability for the match, CNN reported.

The match will be played on January 15 at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena. The Australian Open Rally for Relief will be donating the proceedings from the ticket sales to the bushfire relief efforts.

Tennis star Maria Sharapova had also announced on Wednesday that she had left 10 signed pairs of her tennis shoes in her Brisbane hotel that members of the public could buy with a donation to the Australian Red Cross.

"Brisbane, I have signed ten pairs of my tennis shoes, left them at the @BrisbaneTennis
desk at the Westin Hotel, alongside a donation envelope for fire rescue efforts.They're yours to keep,we just ask you to donate AUD 300 a pair. All money going directly to Red Cross," Sharapova tweeted.

Earlier, former Australian spinner Shane Warne on Monday had announced to auction his Baggy Green cap to raise funds for victims of devastating bushfires in Australia.

Taking to Twitter, Warne made the announcement and posted a statement.

"The horrific bushfires in Australia have left us all in disbelief. The impact these devastating fires are having on so many people is unthinkable and has touched us all. Lives have been lost, homes have been destroyed and over 500 million animals have died too," Warne wrote.

"Everyone is in this together and we continue to find ways to contribute and help on a daily basis. This has led me to auction my beloved baggy green cap (350) that I wore throughout my Test career," he added.

Warne joined a growing list of cricketers to raise money for the bushfire victims. Australian players Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell and D'Arcy Short have already announced that they will donate AUD 250 each for every six they hit in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) to support bushfire victims.

Athletes from other sports too joined the movement as tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic decided to donate 25,000 dollars each for Australia's bushfire relief fund.

Wildfires have been raging across Australia for months, killing 23 people, burning about 6 million hectares (23,000 square miles) of bushland and killing a billion animals.

Naval and air rescue operations were launched on Friday as mass evacuations of towns at risk of being engulfed by flames got underway.b

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.