Amidst the bronze medals that India is winning regularly in Incheon, Saurav Ghosal became the first Indian player ever to enter finals of squash in assuring at least a silver if not gold at Asian Games 2014. Ghosal, who is a professional squash player and was ranked world No. 15 in December 2013, brought a silver lining to the Indian camp on the horizon by winning his semifinal against Ong Beng Hee comprehensively in straight sets 11-9, 11-4, 11-5 in 45 minutes.
In 10m Women's Rifle Final, Ayonika Paul finished 7th. She started well coming to third with scores above 10, but a couple of low scores below 10 brought her down to 7th in the eliminations. Iran was a surprise winner taking both gold and silver overtaking China which ended up with a bronze.
In 10m Air Rifle Team Final, despite Ayonika Paul's score of 417.7, Apurvi Chandela scored 413.8 and Raj Choudhary 407.6 because of which the team finished in sixth place.
In 25m Air Pistol Team event India got a bronze. The Indian team of Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu scored 580, 577 and 572 points which fetched them the bronze. China and South Korea won the gold and silver respectively.
Though Rahi Sarnobat's effort got her a place in the Individual 25m Pistol semi-final, she could not repeat her performance and finished 7th, missing out on a medal.
In 50m backstroke swimming Heats, Parathapan Nair finished sixth and failed to qualify for the finals. In women's volleyball India was blanked out 3-nil by Japan. India could not match the Japanese in all departments of the game. While the Japanese were aggressive throughout and their spikers could not be blocked, India hardly attacked which showed the big difference between the teams.
Malaysia's Ann David beat India's Dipika Pallkal in Women's Singles semi-final in squash 11-4, 11-4, 11-5. Thus Dipika ended with a bronze medal. It is rather surprising both the Indian players were in the same draw; otherwise India would have got yet another medal in the event.
In the football tie against Jordan, India lost 2-0. India had a chance to make up but the shot by Indian team and Bangalore FC captain Sunil Chhetri went wide. In a rough game marred by infringements, Jordan had the better of the exchanges and looked to add a few more goals to their tally. Chhetri had the mortification of handling the ball twice and was given a yellow card for the offence. With this loss, India is out of Games in men's football having lost their game against UAE 5-0.
India is also out of judo after Rajwinder Kaur lost against Nagira Sarbashova from Kyrgyzstan in her final Repechage round bout.
In the Men's basketball, India had the better of exchanges against Kazakhstan and beat them 80-71 after leading 49-36 by the end of second quarter.
In a hockey pool A league match, India women beat Thailand 3 -0.
In both Men's and Women's Tennis Team Quarter-finals, India lost to Kazakhstan by a similar margin of 1 -2. India has gone out of contention for medals in both the events. Despite having good tennis players who feature regularly in Grand Slam Tournaments and have won in doubles quite a few times, India was unable to field its top stars as they opted to stay out to concentrate and improve on their rankings.
This is an area one hopes the government will give serious thought to and comes out with some solution. While in cricket the Board of Control for Cricket In India decided on its own not to send a team to the Asian Games and perhaps government had no say in it, in case of Tennis it had to field a very weak team in the absence of established names who might have made a difference to the tie. After all winning in Asian games, as in Davis Cup, is important too for the country.
One of the important reasons why India has more bronze medals than silver or gold is because competition in Asian games is far tougher than in Commonwealth Games. China is a major powerhouse, followed by Japan and South Korea. That is why participating in events where India is strong would have very much helped to boost the medal tally.
(E R Ramachandran is a sport writer based in Mysore. He will be analyzing the 17th Asian Games for ibnlive.com)
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