Asian Games 2010: Images from Day 3

Ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh scored a double as the Indian men's hockey team started their Asian Games campaign on a rousing note, blanking a lowly Hong Kong 7-0 in their first Group B match in Guangzhou, on Monday.

India completely dominated their rivals in the entire 70 minutes and pumped in four and three goals respectively in each half at the Aoti Hockey Field to start their proceedings in the quadrennial mega-event in style.

India utilised three out of the five penalty corners they earned in the match with Sandeep (4th and 18th minutes) converting two and Tushar Khandker (37th) scoring from a variation.

Bharat Chikara (2nd), Sarvanjit Singh (22nd), Arjun Halappa (38th) and Shivendra Singh (48th) completed the rout for India through field strikes.

Photographs: Reuters

Virdhawal Khade was the lone Indian swimmer who made an impression by making the cut for the 50m freestyle finals while the rest fell by the wayside in the qualifying stages of their respective events.

Khade was third in his heat with a timing of 22.98secs, which was the fifth best among the eight who eventually made the finals scheduled this evening.

The 19-year-old is 0.54 seconds behind China's Wu Zhi Lu, who qualified with the best timing --22.44secs -- among those in the fray.

The rest of the Indians in action disappointed. Arjun Jayaprakash, who was also competing in the 50m freestyle event, clocked 24.34secs to finish third in his heat but was way below the eventual qualifying time.

In 100m breaststroke, Sandeep Sejwal was the only Indian in contention and he managed a timing of 1:03.67secs to finish third in his heat which was not good enough for the finals.

Similar was the story of Havaldar Rohit Rajendra and Rehan Poncha in the 200m backstroke.

Rohit managed to complete his heat in 2:12.79secs to be sixth in the standings and a good 10.25secs behind the eventual winner of his qualifying group, while Poncha finished seventh in his heat with a timing of 2:18.56secs.

China moved a step closer to its clean sweep bid in badminton at the Guangzhou Asian Games by beating Thailand 3-0 in the women's team final on Monday.

It was the fourth consecutive Asian Games gold for China's women in the event and they outclassed the Thais in front of a cheering home crowd.

World number one Wang Xin lost the first game to Ratchanok Intanon but rallied to take the opener 20-22, 21-17, 21-14.

"I've prepared for this match beforehand but I didn't realise it would be so hard," said Wang, who hugged her coach afterwards.

There was no such drama in the following two matches when world number four Wang Shixian and number six Jiang Yanjiao both beat their rivals easily.

South Korea and Indonesia shared the bronze medal.

China's Sui Lu performs a routine on the balance beam during women's individual all-around artistic gymnastics at the Asian Games

China's Sui Lu beat team-mate Huang Qiushuang to win the gold medal in the women's individual all-round artistic gymnastics at the Asian Games Town Gymnasium, at the 2010 Asian Games.

Sui was in sizzling form and delighted her home fans with top scores in both the beam and floor.

Huang, who fell from uneven bars, managed to win the silver medal ahead of Rie Tanaka of Japan.

China's Gao Chang took gold with a confident swim in the women's 50m backstroke, easily fending off Japan's Aya Terakawa who trailed 0.41 seconds behind her.

"My time here is the best in the world right now, so I'm very happy with my swim," said Gao.

Chinese pair Shao Yiwen and Liu Jing pulled ahead early in the 400m women's freestyle and never looked back to power home for a gold and silver double, while South Korea's Seo Younjeong came a distant third.

In the 200m women's butterfly Olympic silver medallist Jiao Liuyang powered home with a time of 2:05:79 for her third gold of the Games, drawing roars from the home crowd. Natsumi Hoshi of Japan won silver and Choi Hye Ra of South Korea got bronze.

In a second bright spot for Japan, however, defending Asian Games gold medallist Ryosuke Irie cruised to gold in the men's 200m backstroke in a time of 1:55:45.

With three days of competition left in swimming, China have won 14 swimming golds compared with Japan's four.