Paddlers get three golds, set for clean sweep

Kathmandu, Oct 2: India are headed for a clean sweep in the table tennis competition at the SAF Games as they took all the three doubles ...

Kathmandu, Oct 2: India are headed for a clean sweep in the table tennis competition at the SAF Games as they took all the three doubles gold medals at stake at the Lainchour Indoor Hall today. The men’s and women’s singles finals slated for tomorrow will be all-India affairs.

Indians had earlier won the team event gold medals in both men’s and women’s sections.

Chetan Baboor and Montu Ghosh avenged the defeat of Subramanian Raman and Poulomi Ghatak in the mixed doubles semi-final as they blanked Pakistan’s of Asim Qureishi and Ghazala Roohi 21-14, 21-18 to take gold. Qureishi/Roohi had stunned Raman/Ghatak 21-19, 21-16 yesterday.

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Indian coach Kamlesh Mehta said the loss of Raman and Ghatak was a surprise. “We are a better team, but the conditions are not conducive for our style of play. The balls are lighter and float which makes strokeplay difficult. Then, Roohi is playing with pimpled rubber, which we Indians don’t have,” he said.

In the men’s doubles final, Chetan Baboor and Raman defeatedcompatriots Arup Basak and Arjun Dutta 21-16, 21-19 to win gold. The women’s doubles gold went to Anindita Chakravorty and Montu Ghosh who struggled to beat Ghatak and NR Indu in the final. Anindita and Montu took the first game 21-14, but Ghatak and Indu came back strongly to take the second game 21-14.However, Anindita and Mantu led form the start in the third game to win 21-14.

In the men’s singles semi-finals, national champion Baboor outclassed Indika Prasad of Sri Lanka 21-13, 21-13, 21-11 while Raman beat Asim Qureishi of Pakistan 21-9, 21-16, 21-12.

In the women’s singles semi-finals, Ghatak defeated Rohila Anjum of Pakistan 21-8, 22-24, 21-17, 21-10. In the other semi-final, Anindita beat Roohi 21-12, 21-9, 18-21, 21-15.

Rana takes third

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Jaspal Rana raised his tally to six gold medals in the shooting competition as India won all the three gold medals at stake at the BIS Complex. Rana won the men’s individual 10m air pistol gold with 670.7 points, an event swept by the Indians. VedPrakash Pailaniya (665.4) and Vivek Singh (664.9) took silver and bronze espectively.

The combination of Rana, Singh and Prakash then won the 10m air pistol team gold smashing the SAF record. The Indians logged 1706 points to erase the record of 1687 set by Bangladesh at the Dhaka Games in 1993. Pakistan (Rasheed Idrees, Mohammed Boota and Irshad Ali) also improved upon the previous record, logging 1688 points to take silver. Nepal took bronze with 1645 points.

The Indians got their third gold in free rifle 3 position team event. TC Palangappa (1104), Ashok Kumar Shahi (1115) and AP Subbaiah (1126) logged 3345 points. Bangladesh took silver with 3269 points, while Sri Lanka won bronze with 3236 points.

SHOOTING RESULTS

Men’s 10 metre air pistol: Individual: Jaspal Rana (Ind) 670.7 points, Ved Prakash (Ind) 665.4, Vivek Singh (Ind) 664.9. Team: India (Jaspal Rana, Vivek Singh, Ved Prakash) 1706 NGR, Pakistan, Nepal. Free rifle 3 position: Team: India (A Subbaih, Ashok Shahi,T Palangappa) 3345, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.