S P O R T S

Rana bang on target
Doha, December 7
Jaspal Rana repeated the history and shot his way to glory and gold in the 25m standard pistol competition as India won their first shooting title in the Asian Games after a gap of 12 years here today.

Jaspal Rana holds the gold medal won by him in the men’s 25m standard pistol event in Doha on Thursday. — AFP photo

Scullers win two silver
Doha, December 7
Indian scullers rowed their way to glory winning two silver medals — in men’s single sculls and men’s four events — in the rowing competition of the Asian Games at West Bay Lagoon here today.

Fatal fall Doha, December 7 Tragedy struck the Asian Games today when an experienced South Korean equestrian rider died after his horse threw him from the saddle and then crushed him. A TV image shows South Korean rider Kim Hyung-Chil falling off his horse which hit a fence during the equestrian cross-country event on Thursday. Kim was pronounced dead at a hospital. — AFP photo

Bajranglal Takhar celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the silver medal in the men’s single sculls event on Thursday. — Reuters

Saina bows out
Doha, December 7
Teenage badminton sensation Saina Nehwal bowed out in the women’s pre-quarterfinal match as Indian challenge in the singles event at the 15th Asian Games ended with Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand also making exits in the men’s event.

India’s pool pangs over
Doha, December 7
India’s agony in the pool finally ended with Arjun Muralidharan failing to qualify in the 50m backstroke event as the swimming competition here in the Asian Games concluded today.

Spikers in sight of semis berth
Doha, December 7
India brightened their prospects of a semifinal berth in the Asian Games men’s volleyball event by thrashing Kuwait 3-0 in a Pool-A league match at the Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall here today.

Cueists settle for bronze
Doha, December 7
India’s seasoned campaigners Geet Sethi and Ashok Shandiliya settled for the bronze medal in the billiards doubles event with a 3-0 victory over arch-rivals Pakistan here today.

Rathore row resolved
Doha, December 7
The unsavoury controversy involving star shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and the Asian Games organisers blew over today with the Indian officials saying the issue had been settled amicably.

Malik invited as technical official
Chandigarh, December 7
Dr M. S. Malik, Senior Vice-President, Asian wrestling federation, has been invited to Doha as technical official at the ongoing Asian Games. The wrestling competition will be commencing tomorrow.

Warm-up Game Southpaws stand tall Potchefstroom, December 7 Sourav Ganguly proved the selectors right by shouldering the team’s responsibility with a fighting 83, while fellow left-hander Irfan Pathan struck an unbeaten century to dig India out from another batting crisis and help post 316 for seven against Rest of South Africa here today.   TAKE THAT: Sourav Ganguly celebrates on completing his fifty on the first day of the match against Rest of South Africa in Potchefstroom on Thursday. — AP/PTI photo

Haq guides Pak home
Faisalabad, December 7
Inzamam-ul-Haq celebrated his return to international cricket today with an unbeaten 42 to seal a hard-fought two-wicket win over West Indies in the second one-day international.

Bond shakes Sri Lanka
Christchurch, December 7
New Zealand comfortably controlled the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka here today after being gifted first use of the ball on a bowler’s wicket. At stumps they were 85 for two after dismissing Sri Lanka for 154.

Punjab basketball players honoured
Phillaur, December 7
Members of medal-winning state basketball teams (2005-06) were honoured at a function organised by the Punjab Basketball Association today. The squads felicitated were the senior men’s team, which won the silver medal at Pune.

Rana bang on target

Doha, December 7
Jaspal Rana repeated the history and shot his way to glory and gold in the 25m standard pistol competition as India won their first shooting title in the Asian Games after a gap of 12 years here today.

The 30-year old shot 574 to earn India their fourth gold of the games and helped the team to win the fifth silver in the shooting events.

India started the penultimate day of the shooting competition in style, winning the gold and team silver in 25m standard pistol competition at Luail range. Jaspal regained the title for the country, which he had won at Hiroshima in 1994.

“It was simply a great display of concentration, determination and will power,” said an elated coach Sunny Thomas.

“Jaspal has done India proud, like he had done in Hiroshima 12 years ago,” he added.

However, India missed the other gold in the event as off colour Ronak Pandit and Samresh Jung pulled down the total with their lacklustre display.

“Pandit and Jung, the two talented shooters, have been totally off colour in this competition, they are capable of scoring above 570 each but today they shot 558 each and we lost the team gold by six points,” Thomas said.

Though 25m standard pistol is not an Olympic event, but still there was tough competition for the the Indian. Jaspal shot 192 (96, 96) in 150 sec series, then in 20 sec series he had a score of 190 (94, 96) and in the last 10 sec series he shot 192 (94, 98) to total 574.

Though the score fetched Rana the gold but it was not his best.

He had shot 588 in Hiroshima, 589 in 1998 Bangkok Asiad to earn a silver and 581 in Busan where he had finished 10th.

However, he equalled his World Championship score of 574 which he had at Zagreb.

Jaspal, incidentally, is only the second shooter to have won gold in the Asian Games — the other being Randhir Singh who is now a secretary general of the Indian Olympic Association.

The silver was claimed by Korea’s Park Byung Taek who shot 571(193, 187, 191) and Kazaksathan’s Vladimir took the bronze with 570 (192,188,190).

Two other Indians in the field — Ronak Pandit and Samresh Jung — shot identical scores of 558 and were placed 18th and 19th, respectively.

Pandit shot 192 (97, 95) in 150 sec series, followed by 183 (88, 95) in 20 sec and 193 (91, 92) in 10 sec series.

Jung scored 188 (96, 92) in 150 sec series and he followed it by 190 (97, 93) and 180 (90, 90) in 20 sec and 10 sec series.

Both Pandit and Commonwealth Games hero Samresh Jung had forgetful Asian Games. They flopped in all the events they took part in.

The team gold went to Korea with a total of 1696, followed by India who totalled 1690 and Thailand (1686).

Narang wins bronze

Gagan Narang clinched the bronze in the men’s 50m rifle three position event of the Asian Games shooting competition here today.

China made it a 1-2 with Fu Zhang winning the gold and Lei Zhang the silver.

Narang’s effort, and those Sanjeev Rajput and Imran Hasan Khan, also fetched India the bronze in the team event.

The trio’s tally of 3456 fell one point short of the silver medal score by Kazakhstan.

China took the gold with 3494 points. — PTI, UNI

Scullers win two silver

Doha, December 7
Indian scullers rowed their way to glory winning two silver medals — in men’s single sculls and men’s four events — in the rowing competition of the Asian Games at West Bay Lagoon here today.

A gritty Bajranglal Takhar put up a tremendous show as he clocked 3:39.43 to finish second in the men’s single scull event while in the men’s four final, it was the quartet of Dharmesh Sangwan, Jenil Krishnan, Sukhjeet Singh and Satish Joshi that finished second on the podium.

Starting in lane four, Takhar raced to the lead which he maintained for the first 250m before being overtaken by Eun Chul Shin of South Korea.

The Indian was breathing under his neck in the last 500m but Shin clung on to the lead to win the gold with a timing of 3:38.04.

Kazakh Mikhail Garnik (3:44.58) took the bronze.

Takhar dedicated the silver to his countrymen and the team mates who cheered loud for him.

“I was leading for the first 250m after which, the Korean overtook me. I tried my best but could not catch him. Still, I think it is a decent finish,” an elated Takahr told UNI.

As if buoyed by this silver, Indian quartet in the men’s four final put up an excellent show and clocked 3:08.98 to take the second place on the podium behind Japan (3:04.48). Indonesia (3:09.83) bagged the bronze.

The Indians were behind by just a second after the first 500m but ran out of steam as the Japanese widened the chasm. — UNI

Fatal fall

Doha, December 7
Tragedy struck the Asian Games today when an experienced South Korean equestrian rider died after his horse threw him from the saddle and then crushed him.

The horse, Bundaberg Black, hit a fence and stumbled, tossing Kim Hyung- Chil to the ground during the individual cross-country competition. The mare fell on top of him and the Seoul resident, 47, didn’t regain consciousness.

He was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead soon after. The horse survived with no noticeable injury.

Kim had won a gold medal yesterday in the dressage event. He had competed in the Olympic Games and was a silver medallist at the last Asiad in Busan four years ago.

“We have opened a formal inquiry into this tragic accident. I don’t want to speculate on the results of that inquiry until it is completed,” said Chris Hodson, vice-president of the International Equestrian Federation.

Chef de mission of the Korean team, Kim Young Hwan, said the whole Korean squad here was in shock.

“There’s a chance of an accident at every event. It’s important to win medals but it’s more important that competitors are safe and return home safely.

“It’s a tragedy and many things are going through my mind at the moment.” — AFP

Saina bows out
M. R. Mishra

Doha, December 7
Teenage badminton sensation Saina Nehwal bowed out in the women’s pre-quarterfinal match as Indian challenge in the singles event at the 15th Asian Games ended with Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand also making exits in the men’s event.

While 16-year-old Saina, the world junior runner-up, and Sridhar went down after a tough fight to their rivals Eriko Hirose of Japan and Ponsana Boonsak of Thailand, former national champion Anand was routed by fourth-seeded South Korean rival Lee Hyun Il here last night.

Pitted against Hirose, the fifth seed, Hyderabad girl Saina fought hard in an extremely close opening game in which she saved four game points but then ran out of steam to suffer a 23-25, 7-21 defeat in 34 minutes in the women’s singles section.

In the men’s category, Bangalore-based Sridhar fought back from an opening game reversal to level things before sixth seed Boonsak regained his composure to triumph 21-17, 19-21, 21-16 in 53 minutes.

In contrast to Saina and Anup, who managed to hold their own, Anand had no answer to the quality of play exhibited by fourth seed Lee, who took just eighteen minutes to dispose of the Indian 21-6, 21-9 and storm into the quarter finals.

Saina fought tooth and nail against her opponent Hirose and ran the Japanese rival close to be trailing 18-20 when she saved her first game point.

Saina then got a chance to close out the game at 22-21 but failed in her bid and then conceded it to her 21-year-old Osaka-based rival on the fifth game point after the scores were level at 23.

Unable to lift herself from the narrow first game loss, Saina thereafter looked out of depth as Eriko started confidently, opening up a six nil lead in the second game, and won the tie to advance to the last eight.

In his match against Boonsak, Sridhar did not look sharp in the early stages, and paid the price for conceding too much ground to his rival as he trailed 17-6 at one stage.

Though he managed to reduce the deficit considerably, the damage had been done and the Thai shuttler had little problem in seizing the initiative, before bagging the opening game.

Unfazed by the setback, Sridhar came back strongly to win the second game in nineteen minutes and force the match into the decider, but failed to sustain the tempo and allowed Boonsak to wrest control of the match again.

Riders come a cropper

The Indian quartet cut a sorry figure in the individual cross-country event of the equestrian competition, with Rajesh Pattu coming up with the best performance among his compatriots by finishing seventh.

Amid a gloomy atmosphere at the Doha Racing and Equestrian Club after South Korean rider Kim Hyung-Chil died following a fall from the horse, the Indians could not make their mark in the event.

Rajesh Pattu, who rode Shehzada, finished with a two-day total of 57.80, followed by Bhagirath Singh (61.20), who rode Guddu.

Palvinder Singh was eliminated from the event. — PTI, UNI

India’s pool pangs over

Doha, December 7
India’s agony in the pool finally ended with Arjun Muralidharan failing to qualify in the 50m backstroke event as the swimming competition here in the Asian Games concluded today.

The Indians were thoroughly exposed against a high class field and none of them qualified from their heats in this competition.

They sank without a trace and they must have heaved a sigh of relief that competition is over and they are spared from further humiliation. Though it remains to be seen what they gained by coming here except for failing in heats! National champion Arjun Murlidharan, whose career best in 50m backstroke is given in the records as 27.63 clocked dismal 28.15 to finish sixth in the field of eight.

Even if he had repeated his best, he would not have qualified because the heat leader Sung Min of Korea timed 25.98 and was followed by Japan’s Masafumi Yamaguchi (26.06) and Danil Bugakov of Uzbekistan (27.12).

And the two swimmers, whom Arjun left behind, were Vietnam’s Do Huy Long (28.29) and Kuwait’s Zainalabdeen Qali (29.36), and less said the better about these two last finishers.

Three boxers punched out

It was a disastrous day for the Indian pugilists as three of them got sound thrashing before the referee intervened to stop the bouts today.

After the defeats of Jitender Kumar (flyweight-51kg), Diwakar Prasad (featherweight-57kg) and Manoj Kumar (lighter welterweight-64 kg), Sanjay Kolte Kisan remains the lone Indian boxer in the fray and he takes on Zou Shiming in the quarterfinals of the 48kg category tomorrow.

Jitender was beaten by Violito Payla. Diwakar was taken to task by Uzbek boxer Bahodirjon Sultonov. Manoj was battered by Kazakhstan’s Serik Sapiyev 8-5, 14-4, 8-1. — UNI

Spikers in sight of semis berth

Doha, December 7
India brightened their prospects of a semifinal berth in the Asian Games men’s volleyball event by thrashing Kuwait 3-0 in a Pool-A league match at the Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall here today.

The Indians turned on the heat from the word go to record a comfortable 25-17, 25-16, 25-18 victory in a one-sided contest which lasted just over an hour.

Top spiker Srikanth Pakalapati put in a stellar show for the Indians by claiming 14 points while Tom Joseph was the other notable performer by contributing 13 points.

The victory carried India to second position in the pool with five points from three matches behind Saudi Arabia, who have six.

India have one league match left against United Arab Emirates on Saturday.

The Indians, who had lost to Saudi Arabia in their last encounter, found the going easier against Kuwait.

Displaying an attacking brand of play, the Indians capitalised on their rivals’ errors to gain tight control on the proceedings and did not relax before completing the straight set victory. — PTI

Cueists settle for bronze

Doha, December 7
India’s seasoned campaigners Geet Sethi and Ashok Shandiliya settled for the bronze medal in the billiards doubles event with a 3-0 victory over arch-rivals Pakistan here today.

The India duo, who slid to a shock defeat against an unknown Myanmar pair in the semifinals in the morning, came back with a vengeance to drub the Pakistani duo of Sohail Shahzad and Vishan Gir with an emphatic 101-13, 102-9, 102-37 scoreline at the Al-Sadd Indoor Hall.

Seven-time world professional champion Sethi and Shandilya put in a much-improved performance against the Pakistanis who lacked the skills to counter the Indians.

Earlier, Sethi and Shandiliya made a few errors to allow Myanmar to carve out a 3-2 victory and move into the final.

The Indian pair started off well by clinching the first and third frames but could not sustain the tempo in the crucial stages against the Myanmar duo of Oo San Aung and Oo Kyaw who scripted a hard-fought 84-100, 100-0, 32-100, 100-15, 100-51 victory to enter the final.

There was more disappointment for India as Yasin Merchant was also knocked out of the men’s snooker singles event in the pre-quarterfinals.

Merchant played well below par to go down 0-4 against Saudi Arabia’s Nezar Asseri who carved out an emphatic 77-55, 74-52, 67-47, 52-17 win. — PTI, UNI

Rathore row resolved

Doha, December 7
The unsavoury controversy involving star shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and the Asian Games organisers blew over today with the Indian officials saying the issue had been settled amicably.

The Doha Asian Games Organising Committee (DAGOC) had threatened to take legal action against Rathore who they claimed had hurt local sentiments by his “offensive behaviour and unsportsmanlike comments” at the Lusail ranges last week.

But India’s chef-de-mission Ram Lal Thakur said the issue had been settled following a letter being sent to the DAGOC by the Indian Olympic Association.

“We wrote to the DAGOC, explaining that it was simply a misunderstanding and Rathore had no intention of hurting local sentiments,” Thakur told reporters.

“We said that no statement had been intended to put pressure or malign the organisers and probably it was taken out of context”. — PTI

Malik invited as technical official
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 7
Dr M. S. Malik, Senior Vice-President, Asian wrestling federation, has been invited to Doha as technical official at the ongoing Asian Games. The wrestling competition will be commencing tomorrow.

Dr Malik said all the wrestlers were subjected to a dope test prior to their departure for Doha.

Team (freestyle): men: Palwinder Cheema (120kg), Jogeshwar Dutt (60kg), Sushil Kumar (66kg), Anju Chaudhary (84kg), Narinder Singh (96kg), Nar Singh Yadav (74kg), Vinod (55kg). Women: Neha Rathi (48kg), Geetika Jakhar (63kg), Sonika Kaliraman (72kg), Alka Tomar (59kg). Greco-Roman: Gian Parkash, Nayak Dhalvi (58kg), Ravinder Singh (60kg), B.S. Patel (66kg), Sanjay (74kg), Manoj Kumar (84 kg), Anil Kumar (96kg) and Dharmendar Dalal (120kg).

Warm-up Game
Southpaws stand tall
Ashish Shukla

Potchefstroom, December 7
Sourav Ganguly proved the selectors right by shouldering the team’s responsibility with a fighting 83, while fellow left-hander Irfan Pathan struck an unbeaten century to dig India out from another batting crisis and help post 316 for seven against Rest of South Africa here today.

Pathan slammed 111, his maiden first-class century, but it was Ganguly who started the rescue operation after India were floundering at 69 for 5 at lunch on day one of the four-day match.

The day clearly belonged to the illustrious Bengal southpaw, who overcame the adverse situation after yet another top-order failure. Later, Pathan took a heavy toll of a tiring attack. His bold innings came off 176 balls and he hit 15 fours.

Ganguly, recalled to the squad after nine months, stepped in during the 11th over when Sachin Tendulkar (10) departed and India, at 37 for 3, were staring at an all-too-familiar collapse.

Openers Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag did not bother the scorers, while VVS Laxman (23) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) were the other batsmen guilty of indiscretion and expansive flashes outside the off-stump.

Scoreboard

India (1st innings)

Jaffer lbw Hayward 0

Sehwag b Morkel 0

Laxman c Kemp b Morkel 23

Tendulkar c Kemp b Morkel 10

Ganguly c Van Wyk b De Wet 83

Dhoni c Van Wyk b Morkel 6

Pathan not out 111

Harbhajan c Rudolph b Thomas 47

Zaheer not out 9

Extras (b-2, lb-10, nb-9, w-6) 27

Total (7 wkts, 85 overs) 316

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-37, 4-59, 5-69, 6-208, 7-287.

Bowling: Hayward 16-1-59-1, Morkel 19-2-74-4, Thomas 18-7-39-1, De Wet 18-4-56-1, Adams 9-1-54-0, Kemp 2-0-8-0, Duminy 3-1-14-0. — PTI

Haq guides Pak home

Faisalabad, December 7
Inzamam-ul-Haq celebrated his return to international cricket today with an unbeaten 42 to seal a hard-fought two-wicket win over West Indies in the second one-day international.

After dismissing West Indies for 151, Pakistan completed victory with 10 balls to spare after pace bowler Corey Collymore had taken three for 19 from his 10 overs.

Fast bowler Jerome Taylor also took three wickets in a spirited fightback by the tourists who were without key players, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo.

Despite recovering from the first over loss of Mohammad Hafeez to reach a comfortable 40 for one in 10 overs, the home side kept losing wickets at regular intervals before Inzamam pulled Taylor for a boundary to end the excitement.

Having taken 18 balls to get off the mark, Inzamam who remained unbeaten after his 86 balls knock broke the shackles in Marlon Samuel's first over and the innings 43rd by hitting him for two fours.

Scoreboard

West Indies

Simmons c Akmal b Gul 0

Gayle c Inzamam b Naved 0

Ganga c Inzamam b Iftikhar 21

Samuels c Younis b Rehman 37

Lara run out 14

Smith lbw Rehman 0

Morton c Yonis b Naved 43

Ramdin run out 23

Bradshaw run out 3

Taylor b Gul 1

Collymore not out 1

Extras (lb-2, w-6) 8

Total (all out, 49.5 overs) 151

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-48, 4-72, 5-76, 6-79, 7-136, 8-148, 9-150.

Bowling: Gul 9.5-2-19-2, Naved 10-1-32-2, Iftikhar 8-0-40-1, Razzaq 7-1-17-0, Rehman 10-2-20-2, Hafeez 5-0-21-0.

Pakistan

Hafeez c Ramdin b Taylor 0

Farhat c Morton b Collymore 17

Akmal c Smith b Collymore 22

Younis c Ramdin b Taylor 24

Inzamam not out 42

Malik c Ramdin b Bradshaw 6

Razzaq c Ramdin b Collymore 17

Naved lbw Samuels 1

Rehman c Ramdin b Taylor 7

Anjum not out 3

Extras (lb-4, nb-1, w-10) 15

Total (8 wkts, 48.2 overs) 154

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-40, 3-50, 4-80, 5-90, 6-118, 7-130, 8-147.

Bowling: Taylor 9.2-0-39-3, Bradshaw 10-3-23-1, Smith 10-1-33-0, Collymore 10-2-19-3, Gayle 8-0-26-0, Samuels 1-0-10-1. — Reuters

Bond shakes Sri Lanka

Christchurch, December 7
New Zealand comfortably controlled the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka here today after being gifted first use of the ball on a bowler’s wicket.

At stumps they were 85 for two after dismissing Sri Lanka for 154.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene was left to rue his decision to bat first on a green wicket with overcast morning skies.

The match was only 17 balls old when New Zealand strike bowler Shane Bond claimed the wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya on his way to dismissing Sri Lanka’s most experienced trio of batsmen and returning figures of three for 43.

Apart from a 50-run partnership between Upul Tharanga (33) and Chamara Kapugedera (37) for the fourth wicket, the Sri Lankan batsmen put up scant resistance. — AFP

Punjab basketball players honoured
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Phillaur, December 7
Members of medal-winning state basketball teams (2005-06) were honoured at a function organised by the Punjab Basketball Association (PBA) today. The squads felicitated were the senior men’s team, which won the silver medal at Pune, the junior men’s team (silver medal at Pondicherry), B.L. Club team (bronze medal in the Federation Cup at Jamshedpur) and the Everest Public School, Ludhiana, team (gold medal in the National School League at Bangalore). The association also honoured its current international players with prizes.

The players honoured included Jagdeep Singh, Yadvindera Singh Sr, Damandeep Singh, Snehpal Singh, Kamaljeet Kaur, Kiranjot Kaur, Sukhbir Dhillon, Yadvinder Singh jr, Gurpreet Singh, Harvinder Preet Singh, Mahesh Mishra, Pawandeep Singh, Fatehjeet Singh, Sarwanjeet Singh, Amit Prashar, Gurbhaj Singh, Sumeet, Pradeep Kumar, Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Singh, Sukhpal Singh, Ajay Prakash, Amandeep Singh., Gagandeep Singh, Harpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilawar, Nikhil Chopra and Shamshool. They were given cash awards and mementos.

Legendary hockey Olympian Balbir Singh Sr was the chief guest, while Mr R.S. Gill, PBA president and Director, PPA, Phillaur, presided over the function. Mr Teja Singh Dhaliwal and former Asiad wrestling champion Kartar Singh were also present on the occasion.