Asiad taekwondo: Indians knocked out

India's Nakul Malhotra (+87 kg) and Anand Pandia Rajan (-80 kg) were knocked out of men's quarter-final and Round of 16 matches, respectively, in men's taekwondo competition at the Asian Games here Wednesday.

Earlier, Aarti Khakal was also ousted in the Round of 32 of the women's -57 kg category at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.

Malhotra exited after losing 1-2 to Lebanon's Elias El-Hedari while Pandia Rajan was the shown the door by South Korea's Yonghyun Park, who won 7-1.

During Malhotra and El-Hedari's match, both athletes took time to know each other's strengths and weaknesses as the first two rounds didn't fetch them any points.

But in the third round, Malhotra conceded two kyong-go (warning penalty) points as compared to one by El-Hedari, who entered the semi-final.

In the other match, Yonghyun proved too strong for Pandia Rajan, who conceded a gam-jeom (deduction penalty) each in the first two rounds. Yonghyun stepped up his game and collected three points with two kicks to walk away with a place in the quarter-final.

Earlier in the day, 22-year-old Aarti was thrashed 8-15 by Kazakhstan's Ganiya Alzak.

Aarti got off to a good start taking a 2-0 lead in the first round with her first kick, but the 17-year-old Kazakh girl turned the tables in the next round, surging ahead 4-3.

In the third round, Ganiya found another gear as her third kick earned three points.

The Indian failed to respond to the challenge posed by the Kazakh and conceded 11 points as she became a mute spectator in the fight.