Mon, Nov 15 10 03:23 PM
S S Ramaswamy Guangzhou, Nov 15 (PTI) India''s good run in cue sports continued for the second day in a row with the men''s snooker team assuring itself of at least a siver medal but the fancied shooters came a cropper on the third day of competitions in the 16th Asian Games here today. The snooker trio of veteran Yasin Merchant, Sneh Aditya Mehta and Brijesh Damani proved too strong for Pakistan as they demolished their arch rivals 3-0 to set up a gold medal clash against hosts China. But the strong shooting contingent, which has provided India the bulk of the medals so far, drew a blank at the Aoti shooting range failing to qualify in all the events. The men''s hockey team began their campaign on a rousing note by thrashing lowly Hong Kong 7-0 in a group-B league match while the paddlers endured a mixed day in the individual competitions with only Kumarsen Shamini making it to the second round of the mixed as well as women''s singles event. In swimming, 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. While the snooker players were the ones who kept themselves in medal reckoning in the morning, star shooters like Gagan Narang and Tejaswini Sawant came up with below-par performances in windy conditions to spoil India''s medal chances. The overcast conditions upset India''s hopes for a medal in the men''s 50m rifle prone event in the Asian Games as the country''s shooting trio, including Gagan Narang, failed to advance to the finals. Narang, who secured two silver medals in the 10m air rifle event on the opening day including the team honours, was second-best among Indians by finishing a lowly 24th with 587 points. But this is not the 27-year-old Commonwealth Games hero''s main event at the distance and he would have a shot at the 50m three position competition to be held on November 18. Hariom Singh, who has already secured an Olympic berth in the same event at the Munich World Championship in August, was 13th from 54 shooters in the qualification stage by shooting 590 marks but this was way behind the 598 he fired at Munich and well behind the 594-595 he has been doing in the practice rounds. Third Indian entrant Surinder Singh Rathod was 27th with a tally of 586. More PTI SSR MRM
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