M A I N   N E W S

3 golds in a day!
* Ferozepur boys win 3 of the day’s 9 medals
* India moves up to 8th spot in the Asiad tally

Guangzhou, November 21
The athletes provided a huge boost to the country's lacklustre campaign in the 16th Asian Games by fetching two gold medals while Ronjan Sodhi brought an end to the gold drought in shooting as India bagged nine medals to climb to the 8th position on an eventful ninth day of competitions here today.

All three sportsmen from Ferozepur in the Indian squad won medals today. While Ronjan Sodhi struck gold in the Double Trap (shot gun) shooting event, Ranjit Singh from Basti Kishan Singhwala and Manjeet Singh from Isa Panj Garai, won two silver medals in rowing.

After a disappointing medal collection on the first week of competitions, long distance runner Preeja Sreedharan and steeple chaser Sudha Singh stole the thunder with their gold-winning feats on the track. Ace shooter Ronjan Sodhi finally brought an end to the shooting contingent's gold drought by taking the honour in the men's double trap event.

With the addition of nine more medals, India's medal tally climbed to five gold, 11 silver and 17 bronze. India had finished tenth on the medals table in the last Asian Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26. India, who had slumped to the 14 position, jumped to the 8th spot on the rostrum mainly because of the three gold medals they fetched today.

China continued their dominance and remained atop the table with a stunning medal tally of 145-71-70 while South Korea (55-46-61) and Japan (30-53-62) were in the second and third spots respectively. The 31-year-old Sodhi, the world record holder shotgun shooter, made amends for his colleagues’ miserable campaign and provided the first gold medal from the shooting range, which has not been too productive for the Indian shooters so far.

Kavita Raut fetched a silver in the women’s 10,000 m run while star tennis player Sania Mirza and grapplers Ravinder Singh (60 kg Greco Roman) and Sunil Kumar Rana (66 kg Greco Roman) were among those who claimed individual bronze medals.

Sodhi teamed up with Asher Noria and Vikram Bhatnagar to claim the bronze in the double trap team event while the women’s archery team comprising Dola Banerjee, Deepika Kumari and Rimil Buriuly also chipped in with a bronze. Somdev Devvarman also assured India of at least a bronze medal by storming into the semifinals but Karan Rastogi went down fighting to top seed Denis Istomin in the men’s singles tennis quarterfinals. Pugilists Vikas Krishan and Manpreet Singh also assured themselves of atleast a bronze by romping into the semis.

The men’s hockey team also had a good day as they beat Japan 3-2 for their fourth consecutive win and finished atop the points-table in group B. — PTI