Silver for mixed doubles team

Gopi shuttles into quarters

India’s ace shuttler Pullela Gopichand overcame some anxious moments before quelling the challenge of his Thai opponent to move into the quarterfinals of the badminton singles. Gopi, who appeared a trifle tentative in the early stages of the contest, had to dig deep into his reserves in the first game but got into his groove soon after to register a 17-15, 15-6 victory over Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana to keep his medal hopes alive.

The former All England champion will now clash with second seed Seung Mo Shon of South Korea tomorrow for a place in the semifinals. Ponsana started off well by keeping the pressure on Gopichand as the two players went neck and neck till 15-15 in the first game. But the Thai could not keep his nerves in the crucial stages.

Bronze in taekwondo

Surendra Bhandari won India’s first medal in taekwondo by clinching a bronze in the flyweight (58-kg) category. The 17-year-old Bhandari’s achievement is all the more creditable as the government had not cleared the taekwondo team. Bhandari won three rounds before losing to Behzad Khodadad of Iran in the semi-finals to finish with the bronze.

Earlier, the youngster, trained by two Koreans fought his way into the semifinals scoring superb wins in the preliminary rounds before losing to Khodadad in the semis. Bhandari showed his class against Kumar Bahadur of Nepal in the second round winning 3-0.

Stickcheck for women’s team

The Indian women’s hockey team completed their disastrous campaign in Asian Games going down 0-2 to Japan in the bronze medal match. India, winner of the gold in the Manchester Commonwealth Games and silver medallist in the last Asiad in Bangkok, finished the four-nation tournament winless losing all their four matches.

For Japan both the goals were scored by striker Sakae Morimoto, one in each half, in the 29th and 44th minute. This was India’s second loss to Japan after 2-3 defeat in the league phase.

False jump for equestrians

India put up a dismal show to be placed ninth after the first round of competitions in the equestrian team show jumping event. The team comprising Sudhir Ahlawat, Sandeep Dewan, Jaspal Massih and Sajjan Kumar were far from impressive and they had 61 penalty points to find themselves at the bottom of the table. The strong Japanese team were at top.