How india fares on day 3 of the asian games

How India Fares on Day 3 of the Asian Games

By 22nd Sep, 2014 | 07:23 pm

India has got off to a decent start in this Asian Games. Although placed at the 6^th position, it’s a few gold medals away from breaking into the top four. India has won one gold and five bronze medals so far. However, to touch the top 2 in the medals list, i.e. China and Japan, is way beyond India’s reach at this moment.

To start with, India has some big names missing in their Asian Games – Vijender Singh, Jwala Gutta and Sushil Kumar. Had our country sent the men and women cricket teams for the Games, we could have at least expected two more medals.

India opened the 17^th Asian Games with one gold and three bronze medals. The country added two more bronze medals on the 2^nd day from squash and the women’s badminton team.

Shooting

India’s shooting star Jitu Rai was well poised to give India another medal. He won gold in the 50-m air pistol category on the opening day and finished in the 5^th place in the 10-m pistol event. Earlier, he’d entered the eight-man final in 10-m event as the second best qualifier.

The shooters have been really impressive for India. The Indian men’s team comprising Rai, Samresh Jung and Prakash Nanjappa settled for a bronze medal after narrowly missing the silver in the 10-m air pistol event. Earlier, Shweta Chaudhary had won bronze for the women’s 10-m category.

Ayonika Paul, who was initially third best, moved up to second and qualified for the individual final which was at 0800 IST today.

Badminton

While the Indian women shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu were impressive, the men’s shuttler Parupalli Kashyap failed to impress.

Basketball

The Indian basketball team who had defeated the mighty Chinese lost to Saudi Arabia 67–73 in the Group B qualifying match. They started their campaign by defeating the lowly ranked Palestine. India is set to proceed after defeating Kazakhstan on Day 3.

Hockey

The Indian hockey team, which has been bland of late, started off on a strong note by defeating Sri Lanka 8–0.

Squash

Dipika Pallikal beat another Indian Joshna Chinappa in squash to enter the semis and then went on to become the first female squash player from the country to win a medal. She won bronze on the 3^rd day.

Saurav Ghosal won his squash semi-final match against Malaysia's Ong Beng Hee. The Indian sweeped the Malaysian 11–9, 11–4, 11–5, and the win assures him of a silver medal. He’s the first Indian to reach the final of the squash event

Football

The Indian women’s football team suffered an embarrassing 10–0 loss to Thailand in the group stage match. Even the Indian men lost to Jordan in the qualifying match by 2–0.

-Sayan Ganguly