Asian Games: India's gold tally rises to 13

Published>Fri, Nov 26 10 07:36 PM

Guangzhou, Nov 26 (IANS) The women's 4X400 metres relay quartet and the men's and women's kabaddi teams won golds at the Asian Games here Friday to take the country's tally to 13. With a silver and four bronzes also coming India's way, the country's overall medal tally rose to 61, the highest after the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.

India's 61 medals comprise 13 gold, 15 silver and 33 bronze. India had won 57 medals (13-19-25) at the 1982 Games.

The quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Chidananda and Mandeep Kaur, which won the gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, came on top here clocking 3:29.02 seconds.

Kazakhstan (Marina Maslyonko, Viktoriya Yalovtseva, Margarita Matsko, Olga Tereshkova) got the silver in 3:30.03 and China (Zhihui Zheng, Xiaoyin Tang, Lian Chen, Jingwen Chen) the bronze in 3:30.89.

Manjeet gave India a good start and Sini maintained the pace with a good run before handing the baton to Ashwini.

Ashwini, who won the gold in 400m hurdles, steamed ahead with rapid strides to break away from the pack and left Kazakh Margarita way behind.

It was left to Mandeep to give it a winning finish, but the tall Kazakh runner Olga came from behind to lead briefly. Seasoned Mandeep, however, had enough fuel to pull to outpace Olga in the last 50m.

The victory gave India its fifth gold in athletics, and 13th overall. The women's relay team had given India its only gold in athletics at the 2006 Doha Games.

India's Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut won the silver and bronze in the women's 5000 metres.

Preeja recorded her personal best timing of 15:15.89 seconds and Kavita also had a personal best timing of 15:16.54. Preeja and Kavita had won the gold and silver in the women's 10,000m.

The men's kabaddi team won the gold for the sixth consecutive time at the Asian Games.

India beat Iran 37-20 and maintained their winning streak in the sport since its introduction in 1990.

Earlier, Indian women's kabaddi team won its maiden Asian Games gold medal, defeating Thailand 28-14 in the final.

The Indian men's team won a bronze in chess.

The team comprising Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Shekar Ganguly, G.N.Gopal and B.Adhiban defeated Iran (Ghaem Maghami Ehsan, Mahjoob Morteza, Toufighi Homayoon, Golizadeh Asghar) 3.5-0.5 in the ninth and last round to finish third.

China beat Philippines 3.5-0.5 in the last round to take the gold. The Philippines settled for the silver.

This is India's second medal in chess after Harika Dronavalli won a bronze in the women's individual round.

India got two bronze medals from the roller sports events.

Anup Kumar came third with 244.2 points in the men's single free skating long programme behind Japan's Shingo Nishiki (253.8) and Chia Chen Yeh of Chinese Taipei (248.4).

Anup and Avani Bharath Panchal clinched a third place finish with 222.0 in the pairs skating long programme.

China's Yawen Lin and Yunqin Tang (245.4) got the gold while Chinese Taipei's Tzu Hsia Weng and Li Hsin Chen (237.6) the silver.

Woman wrestler Suman Kundu lost 0-3 to Mongolia's Nasanburm Ochirbat in the semifinals of the 63 kg freestyle category.

Suman, who defeated Thi Quyen Luong (3-1) of Vietnam and Nestan Kiiazova (3-1) of Kazakhstan in the earlier rounds, will now fight for the bronze.

In the 55 kg category, Geeta defeated Jieun Um of South Korea 3-1, but lost to North Korean Yon Hui Pak (1-3) in the quarterfinals.

Another Indian, Gursharan Kaur, crashed out in the opening round, going down to Guzel Manyurova of Kazakhstan 0-5 in the 72 kg category.

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Asian Games boxing: Gold for Vijender, Santhosh settles for silver

Published>Fri, Nov 26 10 07:16 PM

Guangzhou, Nov 26 (IANS) India's Vijender Singh the clinched gold in the men's 75 kg boxing event with a convincing win at the Asian Games here Friday.

Vijender blanked Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan 7-0 in a lopsided affair.

However, it was a disappointing show by another Indian boxer Santhosh Kumar Virothu, who was pummelled 1-16 in the men's 64 kg final by Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan and ended up with a silver.

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Afghanistan pipped to cricket gold by Bangladesh

Published>Fri, Nov 26 10 07:08 PM

Teenager Shabbir Rahaman Roman smashed two sixes in the penultimate over to help Bangladesh to a first Asian Games gold and dash Afghanistan's hopes of a fairytale finish in Friday's men's cricket final.

Chasing Afghanistan's 118, the 17-year-old's swashbuckling 33 not out swung the Twenty20 match in Bangladesh's favour and they won with three balls to spare, sparking wild celebrations as players rushed with billowing flags on to the ground and embraced.

"We played like tigers today," the green-eyed and wiry Rahaman Roman told Reuters. "This is the happiest day of my life," added the teenager.

The Afghan cricketers, mostly ethnic Pashtun from the country's southeast, were stonefaced after the loss.

"The Afghanistan people are maybe very sad," said Asghar Stanikzai, his team's top-scorer on the day with an unbeaten 38.

"The silver medal is not (a) big medal but it was a good fight."

With the country's expectations weighing heavily on Afghan shoulders to bring home a first Asian Games gold, their opening batsmen appeared nervous at the crease.

Kazi Shahadat Hossain's standout fast bowling unsettled the opening order and the first wicket went for just one run.

A great diving catch near the boundary by Nazmul Hossain dismissed vice captain Karim Khan Sadeq.

A gutsy innings by Stanikzai, however, spurred Afghanistan to a respectable 118 after a middle-order collapse threatened to leave the team with a paltry score.

The Bangladeshis, dressed in green, lost their first wicket in the third over when opener Nazim Uddin scooped a high shot into the hands of Samiullah Shinwarai.

SHOWED METTLE

The Afghans, who bowled and fielded aggressively, showed their mettle when Mohammed Mithun was run out in the eighth over with a superb throw from the outfield.

With the game poised on a knife edge, however, Rahaman Rohan stepped forward, surviving a close lbw call, before swatting two straight sixes into the pavilion, sparking wild cheers by green-clad Bangladeshi supporters and Chinese fans.

For the small contingent of Afghan supporters, some wearing skull caps, there was disappointment but also grace in defeat.

"The world knows us for fighting, bombs and bullets but we want to make sure to the world that we are not these things only," said Abdul Khan, waving a large green, red and black flag in the stands on a cool and sunny afternoon.

"We just need a chance. And definitely I can assure you that our next Olympics or Asian Games, we will go for gold again."

Cricket has become an increasingly popular sport in Afghanistan with a number of academies sprouting up across the wartorn and insurgency wracked land after the game was introduced by Pashtuns who learnt to play in Pakistan refugee camps during the Russian invasion in the 1980s.

In the bronze medal match, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to restore some pride after they were beaten in the semi-finals by Afghanistan on Thursday.

Pakistan won gold in the women's competition with Bangladesh taking silver.

Source: Web Search

Asian Games: 4X400m relay women's team wins 13th gold for India

Published>Fri, Nov 26 10 06:52 PM

Guangzhou (China), Nov.26 (ANI): India secured a 13th gold medal at the XVIth Asian Games being held here when the women's 4X400m relay team of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur clocked a winning time of three minutes 29.02 seconds.

Kazakhstan took silver (3:30.03) and China claimed bronze (3:30.89).

Earlier in the day, the men's and women's kabaddi teams clinched golds, helping India to its best-ever medals tally in an Asian Games.

With the addition of this gold, India's medal tally climbed to a record 13 gold, 15 silver and 33 bronze (total 61), the biggest ever haul in the Asian Games so far.

The previous best medals tally was at the Delhi Asian Games when the country won 13 gold, 19 silver and 25 bronze for an overall tally of 57.

With a few more gold medals expected in the second session, particularly from the boxers, India will be looking for a top-five finish in the Games.

India had finished tenth on the medals table in the last edition of the Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26. (ANI)

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Asian Games athletics: India win gold in women's 4x400m relay

Published>Fri, Nov 26 10 06:26 PM

Guangzhou, Nov 26 (IANS) The Indian women's 4x400m relay team, in a sensational burst, defended their gold medal in the Asian Games here Friday.

The victory gave India its fifth gold in athletics, and 13th overall. The women's relay team had given India its only gold in athletics at the 2006 Doha Games.

The quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Chidananda and Mandeep Kaur, which won the gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, came on top here clocking 3:29.02 seconds.

Kazakhstan (Marina Maslyonko, Viktoriya Yalovtseva, Margarita Matsko, Olga Tereshkova) got the silver in 3:30.03 and China (Zhihui Zheng, Xiaoyin Tang, Lian Chen, Jingwen Chen) the bronze in 3:30.89.

Manjeet gave India a good start and Sini maintained the pace with a good run before handing the baton to Ashwini.

Ashwini, who won the gold in 400m hurdles, steamed ahead with rapid strides to break away from the pack and left Kazakh Margarita way behind.

It was left to Mandeep to give it a winning finish, but the tall Kazakh runner Olga came from behind to lead briefly. Seasoned Mandeep, however, had enough fuel to pull to outpace Olga in the last 50m.

Source: Web Search

Indian women 4X400 relay team wins gold, Ashwini bags 2nd gold

Fri, Nov 26 10 06:18 PM

Guangzhou, Nov 26 (PTI) Indian women''s 4X400m relay quartet lived up to expectations by defending the gold medal won in 2006 with AC Ashwini anchoring the team to glory in the Asian Games here today. Running in the third leg, Ashwini, who earlier clinched the yellow metal in the 400m hurdles, gave the Indian team a huge lead over second-placed Kazakhstan for Mandeep Kaur to maintain it till the finishing line in 3min 29.02sec. In the first leg, India''s Manjeet Kaur was running second before Sini Jose gave a slender lead for Ashwini to take over. Kazakhstan took the silver in 3:30.03 while China claimed the bronze in 3:30.89. With the gold medal here, the Indian quartet have won their second gold in two months in a multi-sporting event, having won the title in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, though today''s effort was well below 3:27.77 in the CWG. In 2006 Asian Games, Satti Geetha, Pinki Parmanik, Chitra K Soman and Manjeet Kaur had won the gold in 3:32.95.

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Switzerland to snub Federer despite possible World Tour finals glory

Published>Fri, Nov 26 10 05:52 PM

London, Nov 26(ANI): Sixteen-time Grand Slam title winner Roger Federer is resigned to the fact that even if he finishes the season by winning the World Tour finals in London, he will not be the Swiss Sports Personality of the Year.

According to the Sun, the favourite to win the Swiss competition is Simon Ammann, a ski jumper who took two gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Talking about the award, Federer, who has been voted the top Swiss sportsman four times, said: "The other guy won two Olympic golds in ski-jumping. That's probably going to do the trick for him. That's my feeling anyway."

"All I can try is to have a good season myself. I've already won plenty of times. It has been nice to win," he added.

Federer, who defeated Robin Soderling 7-6, 6-3 to enter the semi-finals of the tournament, further said that he is now looking forward to win the Australian Open in January.

"Well, I think regardless if I win here or not, I'm one of the big contenders with Rafa and other guys trying to win the big tournaments. And finishing the season great in London would help me be ready for Australia next year," Federer said. (ANI)

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