Jakarta: Narender Grewal (65kg) had to be content with a bronze medal yet again in the Asian Games after losing the men’s Sanda semifinals even as the Indian Wushu team put up their best ever show at the continental showpiece with four medals here Wednesday. Grewal, who won a bronze in Sanda (60kg) in the 2014 Asian Games, lost 0-2 to Iran’s Foroud Zafari in the 65kg semifinals. The three other Indians who won bronze were Santosh Kumar (Sanda, 56kg), Surya Bhanu Partap Singh (Sanda, 60kg Sanda) and Roshibina Devi (women’s Sanda, 60kg).
Gymnasts falter
Forced to compete without Dipa Karmakar the Indian women’s gymnasts finished seventh in the team event final at the Asian Games here Wednesday. India finished just ahead of hosts Indonesia in the eight-team final with a score of 138.050. Each team had three gymnasts competing in all the four apparatus – vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floors. Even though, Aruna Budda Reddy, Pranati Das and Pranati Nayak did well, Mandira Chowdhury fell twice during her routine on the balance beam. It cost India dearly.
Spikers lose
The Indian men’s volleyball team suffered their first loss at the ongoing Asian Games after going down 0-3 against Qatar in a preliminary Pool F match here. India lost 15-25, 20-25, 20-25 in 77 minutes. India had earlier won 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 25-19) against Hong Kong China in their first pool match.
Wrestlers disappoint
After the high of two gold and a bronze medal in freestyle competition, India endured a disappointing end to their wrestling campaign at the Asian Games with Greco-Roman grappler Harpreet Singh losing his bronze medal bout here. Harpreet (87kg) lost 3-6 to Kazakhstan’s Azamat Kustubayev in a bout which was marred by controversial umpiring. Harpreet was India’s lone medal hope after Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Naveen (130kg) and Hardeep (97) failed to reach the medal round.
Rowers shine
Indian rowers continued their good show in the 18th Asian Games as they qualified for the final round in three more events at Palembang. Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Singh finished on top in men’s lightweight double sculls to make it to the medal round. In women’s four repechage round, the Indian quartet of Sanjita Dung Dung, Annu, Navneet Kaur and Yamini Singh finished fourth with a time of 7:53.29s but still made it to the final.
