Historic squash show by India, shooters add another bronze

Incheon Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal scripted history on the squash court while shooters also continued to deliver medals as India bagged two more bronze to boost their tally to six on the third day of the 17th Asian Games here todayPallikal settled for a bronze medal the first by an Indian woman squash player after losing to world number one Nicol David in the semifinals India were also assured of at least a silver in the mens singles event after Ghosal stormed into the final the first from the country to achieve such a featThe shooting range continued to be a happy hunting ground for the Indian contingent with the womens pistol trio of RahiSarnobat Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu claiming a bronze in the 25m team event at the Ongnyeon International RangeWhile the womens pistol team Pallikal and Ghosal stole the limelight with their performances it was a rather disappointing day for India otherwise with the mens football team and the tennis teams crashing out of the eventWith two medals coming their way India were now placed 13th in the overall tally with one gold and five bronzeRegional powerhouse China lead the pack with 41 medals 171212 followed by hosts South Korea 35 131111 and Japan 28 7912History was scripted at the squash court with Pallikals bronze even though she settled for the medal after a rather brute 411 411 511 thrashing at the hands of DavidLater Ghosal entered the final beating 2006 champion Ong Beng Hee Top seed and World No16 Ghosal lived up to his billing outplaying 35thranked Beng Hee of Malaysia 119 114 115 in 45 minutes on the glass court of Yeorumul SquashCourtsAt the shooting range the Indian trio of Rahi Anisa and Heena tallied 1729 points a whopping 18 adrift of silver medal winners China and two more behind gold medallists and hosts South Korea to clinch the fourth medal from the pistol and rifle shooting range hereIt was also the third bronze for the country from this venue The only metal of any other colour notably gold has come through the efforts of army man Jitu Rai in the 50m pistol eventBut elsewhere there was disappointment for the country when rifle shooter Ayonika Paul made the 10m finals but then got eliminated after the 12th shot to finish seventh with 1019The Indian footballers gave a better account of themselves but that was not enough to a stop a superior Jordan side from winning 20 as Sunil Chhetri and Co crashed out of the competition at the group league stageJordan struck on either side of the break through striker Laith Albashtawi in the 17th minute and midfielder Yazan Mohammed Yousef in the 66thHowever the Indian womens hockey team started its campaign on a winning note by drubbing a lowly Thailand 30 in a onesided Pool A match Poonam Rani 15th minute Vandana Kataria 39th and Deepika 53rd scored the goals for Indiaat the Soenhak Stadium hereThere was nothing to cheer about at the tennis court with both the mens and womens teams knocked out of medal contention after losing their respective quarterfinal clashes to KazakhstanBoth the teams lost by a similar 12 margin to the Kazakhs seeded top in mens and second in womens competition For the men Sanam Singh opened the proceedings and went down 67 5 67 3 to Aleksandr Nedovyesov in a gruelling match which lasted two hoursYuki Bhambri was the next player in and he also endured a draining battle before losing 26 76 6 16 to Mikhail Kukushkin in two hours and three minutesHowever the doubles pairing of Saketh Myneni and Divij Sharan prevented a whitewash by notching up an upset 75 75 triumph over Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr NedovyesovIn the womens tie Prarthana Thombare lost the opening match to Yuliya Putintseva 36 26 in one hour and 24 minutesAnkita Raina fared slightly better but could not upstage Yaroslava Shvedova going down 57 67 3 in two hours and six minutesIndia were saved from being blanked out after the duo of Yuliya Putintseva and Kamila Kerimbayeva retired midway through the doubles matchHowever the Indian mens basketball team picked up the pieces quickly after their loss in the second qualifier to outplay Kazakhstan 8061 and top Group BThe Indians who lost a hard fought match against Saudi Aradia 6773 yesterday won their second of the three qualifying matches and moved into the next roundIn judo India ended a dismal campaign after countrys last competitor Rajwinder Kaur lost her final repechage round bout against Kyrgyzstans Nagira SarbashovaAll four Indian judokas three female and one male will return emptyhanded a significant departure from six medals that India got at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games only a couple of months backCWG bronzemedallist Rajwinder was in contention for a thirdplace finish in the womens 78kg category but she turned out to be no match for the heavier and stronger build Nagira who floored the Indian to acquire an Ippon after only two minutes and 11 secondsThe disastrous run of Indian women spikers continued as they were blanked 03 by Japan in their second Group A preliminary Round match at the Ansan Sangroksu Gymnasium hereThe team which was thrashed by hosts South Korea in the opening game were yet again no match for the Japanese as theycrushed the Indian challenge 256 2511 2512 in a 56minute tieThe Indian womens rowing team was eliminated from the lightweight quadruple sculls event after finishing last in their repechage roundThe quartet of Varghese Dittymol Monalisha Chanu Cahoba devi and Manjula Xess was eliminated after ending up on the bottom of the fivestrong heapIndian cyclists also continued their disappointing run as Amarjit Singh Nagi and Amrit Singh finished at the 13th and14th place in Mens Sprint qualifyingAmarjit and Amrit clocked an average speed of 65952km and 64917km per hour respectively but their timings of 10917 secs and 11091 secs pushed them far behind the top finishersIndian swimmers continued to struggle here with Prathapan Nair failing to qualify for the mens 50m backstroke finalsNair clocked 2685 in the heats to finish a lowly sixth in the sevenstrong field