Fourth win on the trot soars Indian kabbadi gold hopes

India, overwhelming favourites for the gold, raced to a 37-21 lead against Nepal before keeping a slender edge in the second half to win by 17 points in the morning.

In the afternoon, they gave an education in the game to the hosts by rattling up a 31-7 lead at the break before winnning comfortably.

Tomorrow, the penultimate day of competition, India meet Sri Lanka and Japan and should comfortably seal the gold medal with victories against both.

Indian spikers completed their Asian Games campaign with a poor seventh place finish after thrashing Kazakhstan instraight games in the classification match to decide the seventh and eighth places at the volleyball courts in Muong Thong Thani Complex today.

India, edged out of the race for the 5th spot by Indonesia yesterday, went all out to thrash the ex-Soviet Republic 15-6, 15-0, 15-11 to eventually take the seventh place.

India, who finished ninth in the last Asian Championship, could come only third behind strong contenders China and Japan in Group B where their victories came against Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

The twice Asian Games gold medallists and bronze winners of the 1986 Seoul Games saw their semi-final hopes upset when the draw was redone due to last-minute withdrawals which pitted India against world powers China and Japan, who beat them in straight games.

All the four Indians in the fray for the Asian Games archery medals qualified for the individual elimination round by coming through the second day of the preliminary competition over 50m and 30m at the ThammasatUniversity Field today.

The 20-year-old Satya Dev Prasad was the best among the Indian quartet, finishing 22nd in the qualifying list with 1222 points while teenager Mangal Singh was a spot below with the same tally.

Seasoned Skalzang Dorji made it at the 26th spot with 1210 points while Rajesh Hasdak logged 1186 to come through ranked 29th.

The women must win their crucial last league match against Japan on Wednesday for a shot at the gold in women8217;s hockey. India8217;s worst fears were proved true last night when it lost 0-5 to defending champions and favourites South Korea yesterday. The loss put India at par with China, who also have nine points from four outings.

India still have two more matches in the round robin league. They take on Kazakhstan tomorrow but are not expected to face much of a challenge from the Central Asian team.

A win against Japan will, however, put India in the finals. Japan also have put up creditable showing at the Asian Games, convincingly beatingUzbekistan and Kazakhstan and thrashing hosts Thailand.