Asiad: Indians lose in taekwondo

Indian taekwondo players disappointed in the 17th Asian Games Thursday with all five participants losing in their respective categories at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium here Thursday.

Rekha Ranee Gogoli started the losing trend, going down to Chinese Taipei's Chia Chia Chuang 0-15 in the women's 62kg quarter-final. Rekha trailed her superior challenger 0-3 in the first round and conceded the match after allowing the lead to stretch to 15 points at the end of the second round. Chia earned 15 points by attack and a point from penalty.

Shreya Singh was the next to make an exit, losing narrowly 6-7 to South Korea's Wonjin Lee in the women's 67kg round of 16. Shreya trailed by a point after the first round, she came back to win the second round 5-3 but couldn't sustain the momentum, surrendering the third set, 1-3.

In the men's section, Saurav went down fighting 4-5 in the men's 63kg quarterfinal against Afghanistan's Ahmad Roman Abasi. After losing the first two sets 0-1 and 1-2, the Indian made a valiant attempt in the third, winning 3-2 but it wasn't enough to overturn the two-point deficit.

Earlier, Saurav had won his round of 16 match against Nepal's Sujan Joshi 8-5, claiming three of the four sets 2-1, 2-1, 1-3, 3-0.

Shiv Kumar capped off India's disappointment, going down 11-7 ( 1-6, 4-1, 2-4) against Saudi Arabia's Mushabbab Alasmari in the men's 68kg round of 16.