Jakarta: The Indian table tennis men’s team settled for a historic bronze medal after going down 0-3 to South Korea in a lop-sided semifinal at the 18th Asian Games here Tuesday.
The team comprising G Sathiyan, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj couldn’t put up a fight against the mighty Koreans, who set up a summit clash against defending champions China in a repeat of 2014 edition.
G Sathiyan, ranked 39th, suffered a 11-9, 9-11, 3-11, 3-11 loss to Lee Sangsu in the opening game as India fell behind 0-1. The experienced Sharath Kamal, World No. 33, was then entrusted with the responsibility to bring India back in the game, but he went down 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11 after a valiant fight against Young Sik Jeoung in the second match. In the deciding third game, Amalraj was beaten 5-11, 7-11, 11-4, 7-11 by 22-year-old Woojin Jang as South Korea clinched the tie 3-0.
A disappointed Sharath agreed that he missed the chance of levelling the score. “I should have taken the tie, but few mistakes at crucial junctures upset me really. Maybe, it (a win in the tie) would have given us a semblance of chance,” he said at the end of the match.
Win-less day
Pavitra’s valiant effort fell just short while Sonia Lather couldn’t figure things out at all as Indian boxers endured a win-less day in the Asian Games here, Tuesday. Sonia, a two-time Asian and world silver medallist, was up against North Korea’s Jo Son Hwa in her featherweight 57kg category quarterfinal bout, but lost. Pavitra then took the ring against home favourite Huswatun Hasanah in the lightweight 60kg category and lost narrowly 2-3.
Spikers lose
The Indian volleyball men’s team lost 1-3 to Pakistan in a 7-12 classification match here. They lost 25-21, 21-25, 21-25, 23-25.
Easy victories
India continued their march ahead with another fairly comfortable day in the squash team event of the Asian Games. Barring Harinder Pal Sandhu, who lost to Al Tamini Abdulla in the men’s tie against Qatar, the others won their matches comfortably. Harinder’s loss meant both Ramit Tandon and Mahesh Mangaonkar had to be extra cautious but both were up to the task as India eked out a 2-1 win against Qatar.
Results (Men): India beat Qatar 2-1; (Women): India beat Thailand 3-0, beat Indonesia 3-0.
2 medals in kurash
India’s Pincky Balhara clinched silver, while Malaprabha Jadav settled for bronze in the women’s 52kg category of the kurash competition here, Tuesday. Pincky was outclassed 0-10 by World and Asian champion Gulnor Sulaymanova of Uzbekistan in the final. Gulnor had earlier thrashed Malaprabha 10-0 in the semifinals.