Asian Games: India notch up five medals, gold remains elusive (Roundup)

Squash player Saurav Ghosal won a historic silver as India notched up five medals but the gold remained elusive for the third consecutive day in the 17th Asian Games here Tuesday.

It was also an emotional day for Indian sports as Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra ended his shooting career with his first Asian Games individual medal, a bronze, and also inspired the 10 metre air rifle team to another bronze.

India ended the day with two bronze medals in wushu after Sanathoi Devi and Narender Grewal lost their respective semi-final bouts in the sanda category at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.

However for Ghosal, it was a case of so near yet so far for as the top seed had to be content with the squash silver - India's first silver in the discipline - at the Asian Games.

The World No.16 Indian, who was the favourite to win a maiden gold for the country in the racquet sport at the Asiad, was shocked 2-3 by World No.46 Abdullah Al Muzayen of Kuwait in the men's singles final at the Yeorumul Squash Courts.

The 28-year-old Ghosal was the odds-on favourite coming into the match and that belief was only strengthened after he won the first two games.

But in one of the biggest shocks, he lost the next three games to hand the Kuwaiti a 10-12, 2-11, 14-12, 11-8, 11-9 win in an hour and 15 minutes.

In shooting, the 2008 Olympic champion Bindra, who Monday tweeted that Tuesday will be his last day as a professional, recorded a final score of 187.1 to take the third position as China finished one-two with Haoran Yang (209.6) clinching the gold medal and Yifel Cao (208.9) taking the silver.

Bindra looked like finishing fourth till his penultimate round but Iran's Pourya Norouziyan, who needed a 9.9 to ensure his progress after the 31-year-old Indian shot 10.5, scored a poor 9.6 to slip to the fourth spot and handed Bindra a medal. Bindra scored 10.6 and 10.7 in his final two shots but it was not enough to stop the rampaging Chinese duo.

He had also led India to the bronze medal in the 10 metre air rifle men's team event. Bindra's individual bronze medal was India's eighth medal in the Incheon Games and sixth from the shooting range. Bindra's bronze also marks the end of an illustrious career with an elusive Asiad individual medal.

The Indian team comprising Bindra (625.4-47x), Ravi Kumar (618.9-43x) and Sanjeev Rajput (618.7-45x) shot a total of 1,863-135x to claim third position. Ravi (20th) and Rajput (21st) failed to reach the final.The gold went to the Chinese team of Yifel Cao (630.7-54x), Haoran Yang (629.2-54x) and Tianyou Liu (626.5-50x) with an accumulated score of 1,886.4-158x.A

South Korea grabbed the silver after the trio of Sangdo Kim (626.1-48x), Hyeonjun Kim (622.3-44x) and Jinseop Han (619.2-44x) shot a total of 1,867.6-136x.The bronze medal was India's seventh medal in the Incheon Games and fifth from the shooting range.

But there was disappointment for India in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event and women's trap. Harpreet Singh finished seventh as Gurpreet Singh and Pemba Tamang failed to impress in the men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol qualification stage 1. Harpreet scored 290-8x with scores of 98, 99 and 93 in three shots, respectively.

Gurpreet, with 284-6x, took 14th position and Tamang was 19th with a score of 277-5x.Stage 1 was topped by China's Yuehong Li, who scored 295-19x. Stage 2 of the qualification and the final will take place Wednesday.

In women's trap, the team of Shreyasi Singh, Seema Tomar and Shagun Chowdhary finished eighth. India had a combined total of 188 and finished far behind Kazkahstan, who took gold with a score of 203. China took silver (199) while North Korea (198) settled for bronze.

Shreyasi was the top performer for India in the final but failed to get the required support from her compatriots Seema and Shagun. Shagun was especially poor with an individual combined score of 59 after three rounds while Seema shot 63 with Shreyasi (66) scoring three more points. Anastassiya Davydova was the top individual scorer in the finals, notching 71 points.

In gymnastics, Dipa Karmakar finished 10th while her compatriot Ashish Kumar was 12th in the individual all-round final of artistic gymnastics.

Dipa, who won a bronze medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, had a total of 49.050 points in the women's individual category at the Namdong Gymnasium. Another Indian in the fray, Pranati Nayak (43.80) finished a distant 20 out of 22 gymnasts.A

In the men's event, Ashish, who had won a historic bronze in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, finished 12th with a score of 81.75 while his compatriot Aditya Rana Singh (77.15) was 17th. Ashish did well to finish fourth in the floor exercise.