Indian rowers skim to bronze

The Indians pushed North Korea, Philippines and hosts Thailand behind in the six-team field. India can nurse further hopes for a medal as they have made it to the final of the open coxless fours events with Johnson Xavier, Tarlochan Singh, last Asian Games bronze medallist Jagjit Singh and Birbal Singh coming through the repechage race yesterday.

India had won a lone bronze medal at Hiroshima in 1994.

Cueists sparkle

Giving a sparkling display on the green baize, World champion Geet Sethi routed Chinese Taipei8217;s HC Ming 3-0 and alongwith teammate Ashok Shandilya stormed intothe semifinals of the Games billiards singles event here today.

Geet mesmerised Ming to emerge winner 150-5, 151-17, 153-7 while Shandilya overpowered KH Sirisoma of Sri Lanka 151-129, 152-44, 150-112.

In two other quarter-finals, Reynaldo Grandea Philippines defeated Moh Loon Hong of Malaysia 3-0 151-52, 150-106, 150-40 and C Praput of Thailand beat Lean Kam Beng Malaysia 3-0 150-40, 150-74, 150-79.

In the semi-finals tomorrow, Praput will clash with Shandilya while Geet faces Grandea. Geet was in full flow against Ming today and took less than 50 minutes to book a berth in the semis. In the first frame, Geet had a break of 91 and then in the next two he had unfinished breaks of 151 and 153.

Shandilya, however, made heavy weather of his victory. He did not have any big breaks but muffed some easy shots, thus allowing his rival to score a 129 in the first frame before winning it 151-129.

Shandilya clinched the second frame rather easily but again in the third he hit the rough patch beforewrapping up the match 150-112.

Mann misses bronze

Grappler Surjit Mann missed a medal in the 69 kg freestyle class by a whisker when he lost the bronze medal bout 2-3 to Japan8217;s Rysaburo Katsu despite a fine comeback to finish fourth as India ended their campaign in the asian games wrestling competition by drawing a blank today.

Mann, a silver medallist at the Chicago World Cadet Championship in 1994, showed his mettle when he beat Igor Kupeev of Uzbekistan by a facile 3-0 margin in his third bout in extra-time.

He then produced another fine effort to defeat tough Korean Kim Oun-You by a 6-0 points margin in the repechage quarter-final at the Thammasat University Hall here.

But Maan, who beat Damidinov Ochir of Kazakhstan 4-3 in his opening bout, later went down by a huge 2-7 margin to Katsu, who spoilt his medal chances once again in the bronze-deciding bout.

In the 130 kg class, Jagdish Singh faded away when he lost his second bout to end up with two defeats against a single win.

In therepechage bout he had to win to keep his chances for a medal but Jagdish lost to eventual bronze medallist G Usukhbajar of Mongolia by a massive 0-5 points verdict to bow out.