Saturday, April 5, 2025

Historic squash show for India, shooters, shuttlers add bronze

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Incheon: Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal scripted history on the squash court, while shooters and Shuttlers also continued to deliver medals as India bagged two more bronze to boost their tally to six on the third day of the 17th Asian Games here on Monday.

Pallikal settled for a bronze medal — the first by an Indian woman squash player — after losing to world number one Nicol David in the semifinals. India were also assured of at least a silver in the men’s singles event after Ghosal stormed into the final — the first from the country to achieve such a feat.

The shooting range continued to be a happy hunting ground for the Indian contingent with the women’s pistol trio of Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu claiming a bronze in the 25m team event at the Ongnyeon International Range.

While the women’s pistol team, Pallikal and Ghosal stole the limelight with their performances, it was a rather disappointing day for India otherwise with the men’s football team and the tennis teams crashing out of the event.

With two medals coming their way, India were now placed 13th in the overall tally with one gold and five bronze. Regional powerhouse China lead the pack with 41 medals (17-12-12), followed by hosts South Korea 35 (13-11-11) and Japan 28 (7-9-12).

History was scripted at the squash court with Pallikal’s bronze even though she settled for the medal after a rather brute 4-11 4-11 5-11 thrashing at the hands of David.

Later, Ghosal entered the final, beating 2006 champion Ong Beng Hee. Top seed and World No.16 Ghosal lived up to his billing, outplaying 35th-ranked Beng Hee of Malaysia 11-9 11-4 11-5 in 45 minutes on the glass court of Yeorumul Squash Courts.

At the shooting range, the Indian trio of Rahi, Anisa and Heena tallied 1729 points, a whopping 18 adrift of silver medal winners China and two more behind gold medallists and hosts South Korea, to clinch the fourth medal from the pistol and rifle shooting range.

It was also the third bronze for the country from this venue. The only metal of any other colour, notably gold, has come through the efforts of army man Jitu Rai in the 50m pistol event.

But elsewhere there was disappointment for the country when rifle shooter Ayonika Paul made the 10m finals but then got eliminated after the 12th shot to finish seventh with 101.9.

There was nothing to cheer about at the tennis court with both the men’s and women’s teams knocked out of medal contention after losing their respective quarterfinal clashes to Kazakhstan. Both the teams lost by a similar 1-2 margin to the Kazakhs

In judo, India ended a dismal campaign after country’s last competitor Rajwinder Kaur lost her final repechage round bout against Kyrgyzstan’s Nagira Sarbashova.

All four Indian judokas — three female and one male — will return empty-handed, a significant departure from six medals that India got at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games only a couple of months back.

CWG bronze-medallist Rajwinder was in contention for a third-place finish in the women’s +78kg category, but she turned out to be no match for the heavier and stronger build Nagira, who floored the Indian to acquire an ‘Ippon’ after only two minutes and 11 seconds.

The Indian women’s rowing team was eliminated from the lightweight quadruple sculls event after finishing last in their repechage round.

The quartet of Varghese Dittymol, Monalisha Chanu, Cahoba devi and Manjula Xess was eliminated after ending up on the bottom of the five-strong heap.

Indian cyclists also continued their disappointing run as Amarjit Singh Nagi and Amrit Singh finished at the 13th and 14th place in Men’s Sprint qualifying.

Amarjit and Amrit clocked an average speed of 65.952km and 64.917km per hour respectively but their timings of 10.917 secs and 11.091 secs pushed them far behind the top finishers.

Indian swimmers continued to struggle with Prathapan Nair failing to qualify for the men’s 50m backstroke finals. He clocked 26.85 in the heats to finish a lowly sixth in the seven-strong field. (PTI )

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