India's shooters continued to deliver medals at the 17th Asian Games, with the trio of Heena Siddhu, Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed clinching bronze in the women's 25m pistol event, in Incheon, on Monday.
Medals tally: 2014 Asian Games
Complete coverage: 2014 Asian Games
Heena (572), Anisa (577) and Rahi (580) combined for a score of 1729 to finish third behind silver medallists China (1747) and hosts South Korea, who won the gold with a score of 1748.
The top-finishing South Korean team comprised Jangmi Kim (584), Junghye Kwak (583) and Jungeun Lee (581).
While Anisa and Rahi did well in rapid fire, Heena was better in the precision rounds.
However, the troika of Ayonika Paul, Apurvi Chandela and Raj Chaudhary finished a disappointing sixth in the 10m air rifle women's team final.
Ghosal first Indian to enter Asiad final, Pallikal wins bronze
Saurav Ghosal became the first Indian to enter an Asian Games final, beating 2006 champion Ong Beng Hee, while Dipika Pallikal secured the country its maiden women's singles medal, a bronze, after losing in the semi-finals to world No 1 Nicol David.
Top seed and world No 16 Ghosal lived up to his billing, outplaying 35th-ranked Beng Hee of Malaysia 11-9, 11-4, 11-5 in 45 minutes at the Yeorumul Squash Courts.
The two players had beaten each other once on the PSA professional tour, but Ghosal had lost to Beng Hee in the team semi-finals of the Asian Championships in June.
It is certain now that the Indian will return home with a medal of different hue after settling for back-to-back bronze in the last two editions of the Games.
He has already said it is his best chance of winning a memorable gold.
In Tuesday's final, Ghosal will play the winner of the semi-final between Max Lee of Hong Kong and Abdullah Almezayen of Kuwait.
Earlier, world No 12 Pallikal could not better the colour of her assured bronze, losing to David in the women's singles semi-finals.
The 23-year-old Indian lost 4-11, 4-11, 5-11, in 25 minutes.
Sanathoi Devi assured bronze in Wushu
Wushu player Thoudam Sanathoi Devi assured herself at least a bronze in the women's Sanda 52kg category after storming into the semi-finals on the third day.
In a dominating quarter-final performance, Sanathoi beat Amgalanjargal Sangidorj of Mongolia in a 2-0 'Win By Round' (WBR) verdict at Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.
The Manipuri will now meet Zhang Luan of China in Tuesday's semi-finals.
Sanathoi will be the third Indian to clinch a medal in wushu at the Asian Games while it will be the fourth by the country in the history of multi-sporting event.
W Shandyarani Devi won a silver in women's Sanda 60kg in 2010 while M Bimoljit Singh bagged a bronze each in the men's Sanda 60kg even in 2006 and 2010.
However, Sajan Lama came a cropper in both the men's Nanquan and Nangun events. He was ninth in Nanquan, with a score of 9.06, while he finished 13th in Nangun, with a score of 7.95.
Women's hockey team too good for Thailand in opener
India’s women's hockey team started their campaign on a winning note, drubbing lowly Thailand 3-0 in a one-sided Pool ‘A’ match.
Poonam Rani (15th minute), Vandana Kataria (39th) and Deepika (53rd) scored the goals at the Soenhak Stadium.
The Indians dominated their opening match but their wayward strikers could score just thrice from 22 shots on goal as against one by Thailand.
Striker Rani Rampal got the maximum number of shots -- six -- but could not sound the board even once.
India took some time to settle down, but once they had the measure of their opponents dictated terms. They scored once each in the first, third and fourth quarters of the match.
The Ritu Rani-led side took the lead in the 15th minute through a penalty-corner and Poonam Rani was bang on target after a few unsuccessful attempts at the opposition goal.
Despite repeatedly breaking through the Thai defence they were, however, restricted to a 1-0 lead at the midway stage. But as soon as the third quarter started, Vandana Kataria increased the lead with a field goal and that virtually settled the issue.
The Indians completed the tally in the final quarter with Deepika scoring in the 53rd minute from a penalty-corner.
India take on title favourites China on September 24 before finishing their league phase with a match against Malaysia on September 26.
India out of medal contention in tennis team events
India were knocked out of medal contention in the men's and women's tennis team events after losing their respective quarter-final matches to Kazakhstan, seeded No 1 in the men's and second in the women's competition.
Both the teams lost by a 1-2 margin.
In the men's match, Sanam Singh opened the proceedings and went down 6-7(5), 6-7(3) to Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
Next, Yuki Bhambri endured a draining battle before losing 2-6, 7-6(6), 1-6 to Mikhail Kukushkin.
However, the doubles pairing of Saketh Myneni and Divij Sharan prevented a whitewash with an upset 7-5, 7-5 victory over Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
In the women's tie, Prarthana Thombare lost the opener to Yuliya Putintseva 3-6, 2-6 in an hour and 24 minutes.
Ankita Raina fared slightly better, but could not upstage Yaroslava Shvedova, going down 5-7, 6-7(3).
India were saved from being blanked out as the duo of Yuliya Putintseva and Kamila Kerimbayeva retired midway through the doubles match.
Judokas sign off empty-handed
India ended their dismal campaign in judo after the country's last competitor, Rajwinder Kaur, lost her final repechage round bout to Kyrgyzstan's Nagira Sarbashova.
All four Indian judokas -- three female and one male -- will return empty-handed, a significant departure from the six medals that India earned at the Glasgow quadrennial extravaganza only couple of months back.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Rajwinder was in contention for a third-place finish in the women's +78kg category, but she turned out to be no match for the heavier and stronger-built Nagira, who acquired an 'Ippon' after only two minutes and 11 seconds.
Women spikers lose 0-3 to Japan
The disastrous run of India's women spikers continued as they were blanked 0-3 by Japan in their second Group A preliminary round match at the Ansan Sangroksu Gymnasium.
The Indians, who were thrashed by hosts South Korea in the opening game, were yet again no match for the Japanese, who won 25-6, 25-11, 25-12 in 56 minutes.
The 17-year-old Nirmala was India's top scorer, contributing nine points with a fastest serve of 68km per hour.
India next take on Thailand on Wednesday.
Women rowers eliminated
The women's rowing team was eliminated from the lightweight quadruple sculls event after finishing last in their repechage round.
The quartet of Varghese Dittymol, Monalisha Chanu, Chaoba Devi and Manjula Xess were eliminated after ending up on the bottom of the five-strong heap.
The four clocked 7:05.65s to cover 2000m, way below the fourth-ranked Thais, who qualified for the final with a timing of 6:58.65s.
Cyclists Amarjit, Amrit disappoint
Indian cyclists continued their disappointing run as Amarjit Singh Nagi and Amrit Singh finished 13th and 14th in the men's sprint qualifying.
Amarjit and Amrit clocked an average speed of 65.952km and 64.917km per hour respectively, but their timings of 10.917 seconds and 11.091s pushed them far behind the top finishers.
Seiichiro Nakagawa of Japan produced a timing of 9.942 with an average speed of 72.420km per hour to not only top the qualification but also create an Asian Games record in the process.
Swimmers' poor show continues; Nair 6th in 50m backstroke
India's swimmers continued to struggle at the Games as Prathapan Nair failed to qualify for the men's 50m backstroke final.
Nair clocked 26.85s in the heats and finished a lowly sixth in the seven-strong field.
It was a second successive day of disappointment for her; she finished seventh in the 100m backstroke heats on Sunday.
Indian women finish eighth in artistic gymnastics
India’s women artistic gymnasts finished eighth in the individual qualification and team final.
Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Dipa Karmakar scored the best among the Indian girls but was no match to the top gymnastic teams, headed by China.
India's total score from the four divisions was 179.625 in comparison to China's total of 229.300.
The team fared better in the vault division, with Dipa scoring a 14.400 but Pranati Nayak, Paranati Das, Aruna, Buddy, Reddy, Rucha Sachin Devekar and Payel Bhattacharjee did not do well.
