India finished the Asian Games sailing competition at the Shanwei Water Sports Centre in Guangzhou on Saturday with a sole silver medal in Open Match Racing following a fight for the gold with Japan.
The Indian team of Balraj, Balkrishna Helegaonkar, Atool Singh, Farokh Tarapore and Shekhar Singh Yadav were beaten 0-3 in the best-of-five final by Japan while the bronze went to South Korea.
India had earlier in the day come from 0-2 down to put it across hosts China but any hopes of a come-from-behind victory in the final was dashed by sudden gusting wind, said team's coach Naresh Yadav.
"We could have won the gold had it not been for the heavy winds that upset our calculations. The wind favoured the Japanese as we had done practice in lighter winds, between 4-6 knots at home in Mumbai and elsewhere," Yadav said.
Yadav said the team did very well to fight back from a hopeless position in the semi-final clash against China.
"We decided to take it one race at a time and went through. The wind was then 10-12 knots," he said.
The sailing coach said the team had come to this city with the intention of winning gold medal in Open Match Racing and Laser Radial in which Rajesh Chaudhary was attempting to win a third medal in as many editions after winning bronze in 2002 in Busan and 2006 in Doha.
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