India could add only a bronze to its medals tally on day five of the Asian Games 2014 in Incheon, but progress made in racquet sports kept hopes for the yellow metal alive, which has remained elusive after the one and only so far - clinched by pistol shooter Jitu Rai on September 20.
The solitary medal on Wednesday came from the rowing contingent, where Services man Dushyant Dushiant bagged bronze in Lightweight Men's Single Sculls Final. There were two other rowing finals India featured in, but was left behind in the medals race. Roopendra Singh and Manjeet Singh finished fourth in Lightweight Men's Double Sculls Final and the duo of Sanjukta Dung Dung and Tarunikha Pratap ended fifth in Women's Pair Final.
The singles and doubles competition in badminton got underway at Incheon on Wednesday, witnessing India's top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu progressing smoothly to the pre-quarterfinals. Both beat opponents from Macau in straight sets in their respective Round-of-32 encounters.
The doubles badminton competition also saw progress made by the Indians, where the men's pair of Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri and women's team of P Gadre and N Sikki moved into the Round of 16. But there was disappointment for the doubles team of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra that was ousted after losing 21-10, 21-15 against China. The women's pair of P Gadre and N Reddy also failed to progress, crashing out in Round of 16 after losing to Japan's M Maeda and K Reika.
After Saurav Ghosal's historic silver medal in the singles squash event, there was more heartening news on Wednesday. India beat Hong Kong and then Pakistan in Group B matches of the Women's Team event to almost book a quarter-final berth. After Dipika Pallikal's loss in the opening match against Hong Kong, India came back through Joshna Chinappa and Anaka Alankamony to win 2-1. But they had little trouble beating Pakistan, with Pallikal, Chinappa and Balamurukan Aparajitha winning their respective matches for a 3-0 victory.
The strong shooting squad, which had accounted for the bulk of medal collection so far, drew a blank on Wednesday which led to India dropping one place in the medal table. With the addition of just one bronze, India took their tally to 12 (1 gold, 1 silver, 10 bronze). Powerhouse China continued to lead the pack followed by hosts South Korea and Japan.
The women's hockey team lost 1-2 to China in a preliminary match. In the boxing ring, comeback-man Akhil pummelled his Nepalese rival Purna Bahadur Lama before notching up a Technical Knockout triumph while Shiva merely had to show up to enter the second round as Indian boxers began their Asian Games campaign on a winning note.
The otherwise prolific Indian shooting contingent had another forgettable day at Incheon, returning empty handed in both Team and Individual events of the Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and women's 50m Rifle Prone. Indian men's 25m rapid fire pistol team narrowly missed out on a bronze as they finished fourth after ending up with same points as Vietnam with a tally of 1704. The bronze was decided on 'innner 10' count and Vietnam bagged the medal as they had 41 hits at the innermost ring as against 39 by the Indians.
India's chances of a medal in the individual event rested on Harpreet Singh but he failed to even qualify for the final round finishing seventh. Harpreet's teammates Gurpreet Singh and Pemba Tamang performed poorly to end up 12th and 20th with respective overall tallies of 570 and 556. The Indian women were even more off the mark with army major Raj Chaudhary, the main hope, starting well in the 50m rifle prone individual event before tapering off to finish 22nd out of 43 shooters with an aggregate score of 614.6.
India's volleyball teams had a contrasting day. The women were beaten by Thailand 25-19, 25-12, 25-11 in a Group B match; and the men overpowered Maldives 25-10, 25-19, 25-17 in a Group C match to virtually qualify for the quarter-finals.
On the other hand, Indian men's basketball campaign came to a sorry end on Wednesday as they were overwhelmed by Iran 41-76 in Group E to get knocked out of the medals race. The men's sepaktakraw team continued to have a difficult time, losing 3-0 to Thailand in Group A Preliminary match.
The Recurve Ranking Round in archery also culminated on day five at Incheon. In the men's section, Indian archers Atanu Das was ranked 13th, Jayanta Talukdar 17th, Tarundeep Rai 22nd and Rahul Banerjee 25th, while as a team India stood 6th. In the women's draw, Deepika Kumari was ranked eighth, Laxmirani Majhi 15th, Bombayla Devi 20th and Pranitha Vardhineni 30th. The combined score of four women gave India the fifth rank as a team.
In sailing, India's Varsha Gautham and Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan occupied the top spot after two races in Women's 29er- Two Person Dinghy event on the first day of competition.
Varsha and Aishwarya were on top of the heap of six teams in the 12-race event which will continue till September 30. On the tennis court, Natasha Palha crashed out of the women's singles event following a straight sets defeat but the combo of Shweta Rana and Rishika Sunkara made a bright start for India in women's doubles, recording an easy win over Pakistan's Sara Mansoor and Ushna Suhail.
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