India’s silver medallist Sandhyarani Devi (from left), Iran’s gold medal winner Khadijeh Azadpour and bronze medallists Paloy Barckkham of Laos and Yi Tzu Wu of Taipei, in Guangzhou, on Wednesday. (PTI)

Guangzhou: Unheralded Sandhyarani Devi proved to be the saving grace for India by bagging a silver medal in wushu, while the fancied shooters fell by the wayside for the third successive time on a rather unproductive fifth day of the 16th Asian Games, on Thursday.

The 27-year-old’s achievement was the lone bright spot in an otherwise heart-breaking day, which generally saw below-par performances in most disciplines. Sandhyarani, who was handicapped by a leg injury which she picked up in her semi-final win against Paloy Barckkham of Laos, lost 0-2 to the Iranian.

“I could not raise my leg which was stiff following the injury sustained in the semi-finals. I was trying to throw her down with my arms but could not accomplish that too. I was targeting the gold but could not perform to potential because of the injury,” she said.

With the addition of just a silver medal, India’s medal tally rose to one gold, five silver and seven bronze.

Saina Nehwal sailed through her women’s singles pre-quarter final but Parupalli Kashyap became a first round casualty in the men’s event as India wrapped up a mixed day in badminton.

World No. 3 Saina, the only player to win her match in the women’s team event, saw off her first opponent Lydia Cheah of Malaysia 21-15 21-17 in only 28 minutes to book her quarters berth. She will now meet the winner of Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong, the world No. 12 and sixth seed, and Pai Hsiao Ma of Taipei for a place in the last four. Kashyap, ranked 31 globally, proved unequal to the task of overcoming his first round rival and fifth seed Nguyen Tien Minh and was beaten 21-14, 22-20 by the world No. 8 Vietnamese.

The other Indians who were shown the door were Aditi Mutatkar, mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan and the men’s doubles teams Rupesh Kumar-Sanave Thomas and Arun Vishnu-Akshay Dewalkar.

Arvind Bhat, ranked 43rd in the world and a replacement for the injured Chetan Anand, did not have to struggle much as his first round opponent, Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne, gave him a walkover into the last 16. The women hockey team’s chance of a medal was severely dented after going down to South Korea by a solitary goal. The Indian eves now need to win two of their last three matches to keep themselves in the race for a bronze medal.

India had a mixed day in tennis as Karan Rastogi and Vishnu Vardhan started their campaign with a comfortable victory in the men’s doubles, while Rushmi Chakravarti and Poojashree Venkatesha crashed out of the women’s doubles in the first round.

The shooters put up a dismal show on another windy day with only pistol expert and Melbourne Commonwealth Games hero Samaresh Jung coming up with something notable in the morning session of the competitions. Jung missed the men’s 25m standard pistol shoot-off for the bronze by one point in a straight final to finish seventh overall.

After ending India’s 24-year-old medal drought in the pool in Asian Games, teen swimming sensation Virdhawal Khade topped his 100m freestyle heats but the effort was not good enough to fetch a place in the finals of the event. Khade clocked 51.25sec to top the 100m freestyle heats but the eventual eight qualifiers returned timings of under 51 seconds. India’s woeful show continued in sepaktakraw with both the men’s and women’s teams bowing out of medal contention.

After making a disappointing start to their campaign on Tuesday, when the men’s team lost to Japan and the women’s team was thrashed by South Korea, India once again failed to make a mark, losing to hosts China.

Meanwhile, India’s lone gold winner in this edition of Asian Games, Pankaj Advani, and Aditya Mehta will begin their snooker campaign, on Thursday.

India would be expecting to add a few more medals in their kitty in this sporting discipline before it ends on Saturday. In men’s basketball, India suffered their second consecutive loss after succumbing to a 66-93 defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei. They play against Iran on Friday. (PTI)

results

BILLIARDS
Men: Carom 3-Cushion Singles: Gold: Tsuyoshi Suzuki (Jap), Silver: Joji Kai (Jap), Bronze: Anh Vu Duong (Vie), The Vinh Ly (Vie)
CYCLING
Men: Sprint: Gold: Zhang Lei (Chi), Silver: Tsubasa Kitatsuru (Jap), Bronze: Yudai Nitta (Jap) m Points Race: Gold: Vladimir Tuychiev (Uzb), Silver: Wong Kam Po (Hong Kong), Bronze: Mehdi Sohrabi (Iran) m Keirin: Gold: Azizulhasni Awang (Mal), Silver: Josiah Ng (Mal), Bronze: Zhang Miao (Chi)
Women: Sprint: Gold: Guo Shuang (Chi), Silver: Lin Junhong (Chi), Bronze: Lee Wal Sze (Hong Kong)
EQUESTRIAN
Individual Dressage: Gold: Hwang Young-shik (S. Kor), Silver: Mahamad Quzandria (Mal), Bronze: Qabil Mahamad Fathil (Mal)
GYMNASTICS
Apparatus Finals: Men: Vault: Gold: Yang Hak-seon (S. Kor), Silver: Feng Zhe (Chi), Bronze: Stanislav Valiyev (Kaz) m Parallel Bars: Gold: Feng Zhe (Chi), Silver: Anton Fokin (Uzb), Bronze: Ildar Valeyev (Kaz) m Horizontal Bar: Gold: Zhang Chenglong (Chi), Silver: Shun Kuwahara (Jap), Bronze: Teng Haibin (Chi)
Women: Balance Beam: Gold: Sui Lu (Chi), Silver: Deng Linlin (Chi), Bronze: Luiza Galiulina (Uzb) m Floor Exercise: Gold: Sui Lu (Chi), Silver: Mai Yamagishi (Jap), Bronze: Jo Hyun-joo (S. Kor)
SHOOTING
Men: 25m Standard Pistol: Gold: Hong Seong Hwan (Hong Kong), Silver: Kim Jong Su (N. Kor), Bronze: Jin Yong-de (S. Kor) m 25m Standard Pistol Team: Gold: South Korea, Silver: China, Bronze: North Korea m Running Target Mixed: Gold: Pak Myong Won (N. Kor), Silver: Zhai Yuijia (Chi), Bronze: Gan Lin (Chi) m Running Target Mixed Team: Gold: North Korea, Silver: China, Bronze: South Korea
Women: 50m Rifle 3 Positions: Gold: Wang Chengyi (Chi), Silver: Elaheh Ahmadi (Iran), Bronze: Wu Liuxi (Chi) m 50m Rifle 3 Positions Team: Gold: China, Silver: South Korea, Bronze: Iran
SOFT TENNIS
Men’s singles: Gold: Lee Yo-han (S. Kor), Silver: Bae Hwan-sung (S. Kor), Bronze: Keiya Nakamoto (Jap), Yang Sheng Fe (Tai)
Women’s singles: Gold: Zhao Lei (Chi), Silver: Kim Aek-yung (S. Kor), Bronze: Chiang Wan Chi (Tai), Kim Kyung-ryun (S. Kor)
SWIMMING
Men: 100m Freestyle: Gold: Park Tae-hwan (S. Kor), Silver: Lu Zhiwu (Chi), Bronze: Takuro Fujii (Jap) m 200m Individual Medley: Gold: Ken Takakuwa (Jap), Silver: Wang Shun (Chi), Bronze: Yuya Horihata (Jap)
Women: 100m Freestyle: Gold: Tang Yi (Chi), Silver: Li Zhisi (Chi), Bronze: Haruka Ueda (Jap) m 100m Backstroke: Gold: Zhao Jing (Chi), Silver: Shiho Sakai (Jap), Bronze: Gao Chang (Chi) m 200m Breaststroke: Gold: Darae Je-ong (S. Kor), Silver: Sun Ye (Chi), Bronze: Ji Liping (Chi) m 800m Freestyle: Gold: Li Xuanxu (Chi), Silver: Shao Yiwen (Chi), Bronze: Maiko Fujino (Jap)
TAEKWONDO
Men: Under 74kg: Gold: Aire Nassrazadany (Iran), Silver: Dmitriy Kim (Uzb), Bronze: Thanh Tam Duong (Vie), Patiwat Thongsalup (Thai) m Under 87kg: Gold: Yousef Karami (Iran), Silver: Park Yong-hyun (S. Kor), Bronze: Trong Cuong Nguyen (Vie), Yin Zhimeng (Chi)
Women: Under 46kg: Gold: Jsien Yung-huang (Tai), Silver: Dana Touran (Jor), Bronze: Jamal Khosh (Iran), Francisca Valentina (Indo) m Under 49kg: Gold: Wu Jingyu (Chi), Silver: Enka Kasahara (Jap), Bronze: Chanapa Sonkham (Thai), Thi Hau Vu (Vie)
TENPIN BOWLING
Men’s Doubles: Gold: Malaysia, Silver: Japan, Bronze: Singapore
WATER POLO
Women: Gold: China, Silver: Kazakhstan, Bronze: Uzbekistan
WEIGHTLIFTING
Men: 85kg: Gold: Lu Yong (Chi), Silver: Mansurbek Chashemov (Uzb), Bronze: Kim Kwang-hoon (S. Kor)
Women: 69kg: Gold: Liu Chunhong (Chi), Silver: Sinta Darmariani (Indo), Bronze: Wang Ja-jhen (Tai)
WUSHU
Men: Sanshou: 56kg: Gold: Li Xinjie (Chi), Silver: Phan Van Hau (Vie), Bronze: Phoxay Aphaylath (Laos), Khwanyuen Chantra (Thai) m 60kg: Gold: Mohsen Mohammadseifi (Iran), Silver: Kim Jun-yul (S. Kor), Bronze winners announced yesterday m 65kg: Gold: Zhang Junyong (Chi), Silver: Nguyen Van Tuan (Vie), Bronze: Mark Eddiva (Phi), Hyun Chang-ho (S. Kor) m 70kg: Gold: Zhang Yong (Chi), Silver: Cai Liangchan (Macau), Bronze: Dinh Khanh Vuoung (Vie), Sajjad Abbasiamir (Iran) m 75kg: Gold: Hamidreza Gholupour (Iran), Silver: Ijaz Ahmed (Pak), Bronze: Jiang Chunpeng (Chi), Batjargal Magsarjav (Mon)
Women: Sanshou: 52kg: Gold: E Meidie (Chi), Silver: Nguyen Thi Bich (Vie), Bronze: Lee Jung-hee (S. Kor), Elaheh Mansoryansamiroumi (Iran) m 60kg: Gold: Khadijeh Azadpour (Iran), Silver: Sandhyarani Devi Wangkhem (India), Bronze: Paloy Barkkham (Laos), Wu Tsu Yi (Tai)
Note: All finals, Indians only