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Malleswari, equestrian team end India's medal drought

Harpal Singh Bedi and C N R Vijaykumar in Bangkok

Karnam Malleswari won a silver medal in the women's 63kg weightlifting competition and the equestrian team added a bronze to finally put India in the medals table on the fifth day of the 13^th Asian Games.

The superb performance from Malleswari, a former world champion, brought cheer to the medal-starved Indian contingent which had had a disappointing run over the first four days.

The horsemen also won a medal for the country after 16 years at Fort Adison, Saraburi, finishing third despite one of them being disqualified and another retiring.

Women's hockey team edges past powerful China

The women's hockey team continued its fine run, edging past strong rivals China 2-1 in a round robin league tie.

An opportunistic goal by forward Manjinder Kaur in the second half enabled India to stop the Chinese.

India, who thrashed hosts Thailand 13-1 on Tuesday, led 1-0 at half-time from skipper Pritam Thakaran's penalty-corner conversion.

The victory was sweet revenge for the Indian women who were earlier this year mauled by China to finish 12^th at the World Cup in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It also put the team at the head of the table with six points from two wins.

But while India won the match, the Chinese gave them a run for their money. The speed and rhythm the Indians displayed against the Thais was totally lacking and they had to put in a tremendous effort to cross their first real hurdle in the medal hunt.

Defending champions South Korea and Japan are the other major hurdles in India's path.

The Chinese at times became desperate against the formidable Indian defence spearheaded by Sita Gussain. They, however, forced eight penalty corners and converted one, the fifth, early in the second half through Yang Hu Ping.

The first 18 minutes of the game produced listless hockey, with neither team making any dangerous moves. But once India wrested two penalty corners, the pace picked up. In the 25th minute, India converted its third penalty corner when Thakaran hit home off a pass from M Tirkey.

Earlier, taking the first penalty corner, Thakaran saw her fine attempt deflected by Chinese custodian Yali Nie. India also won eight penalty corners.

China missed an easy chance when Chunling Tang failed to sound the board with the goalmouth wide open.

Soon after the lemon break, China forced two penalty corners in quick succession and in the 37th minute Yang Hu Ping made no mistake in converting the second to draw level.

Thereafter, India forced three penalty corners in quick succession, but failed to convert any. Sandeep Kaur struck the board off the seventh penalty corner, but umpire Yasueda Kazuka of Japan ruled the shot dangerous.

India then struck in the 58th minute when Thakaran made a good move and gave a cross to Manjinder who made no mistake as the Chinese goalkeeper charged out.

Thereafter, the Indians concentrated on saving their citadel and denying any scoring chances to the Chinese.

India take on Uzbekistan in their next match on Saturday.

Golfer Harmeet Kahlon remains in medal contention

National amateur champion Harmeet Kahlon was in third place with a par 72 to remain in the reckoning for a medal in the men's golf competition.

But the other three Indians in the fray lagged behind. Amit Luthra, a member of the 1982 Delhi Asiad gold medal-winning team, shot two over par at 74 and was placed joint sixth. Digvijay Singh returned three over to be in 14th place, and Amit Dube had a round of five over par for joint 25th.

Canoeist Vaga Ram enters semis of 500m event

Promising caneoist Vaga Ram, giving a vastly improved performance, entered the semi-finals of the C-1 500m event clocking 2:08.18. The soldier, who had fared poorly in the 1000m event yesterday, finished with the fourth best timing among six participants in the heats.

Seung Wee Lee (South Korea) and Taito Ambo (Japan) made it to the final directly with top timings.

Sadanandan and Subash Sivakutty also made it to the semi-finals today, finishing third with 1:51.21 in the second heats of the C-2 500m men's team event.

But another Indian, Premkumar Rai, a gold medallist at the Bangalore National Games, clocked a poor 1:56.43 to finish fifth in the K-1 500m.

The day was redeemed for the Indian kayak team by Vinod Pavitran and Karma Toppo who clocked 1:46.00 to move into the semi-finals of the k-2 500m event.

In the women's kayaking event, K Minmar and S Srimati cruised into the final of the K-2 500m race clocking 1:56.67.

Poor showing by the rest

But India's medal hopes in the snooker (doubles) were extinguished as Alok Kumar failed to give sufficient support to Yasin Merchant in their quarterfinal match against an off-colour Thailand.

Marksmen Murad Ali Khan, Gaurav Sondhi and R V S Rathore also continued with their wayward ways, finishing seventh in the double trap event, aggregating 347 points. China, Kuwait and Singapore finished first, second and third, respectively.

None of the Indians qualified for the final of the individual gold either.

From the Indian point of view, Rathore's 121 was the best effort. He finished 11th in the pack of 30 shooters, followed by Khan (15th) and Sondhi (23rd).

China's Bing Yuan Hu shot a 134, followed by compatriot Bo Li who had a 133. Kuwaiti Mashfi Almutairi finished one point behind, at 132.

Five-time national champion Meghna Narayan was all at sea in the 100m butterfly event, failing to clear the heats. The 21-year-old clocked 1:07.91. Japanese swimmer Ayori Aoyama came in first with 1:00.29.

Though Meghna was not slated to participate in the event, she took part to gain experience of the highly competitive field.

The debutante Indian women golfers began on a disastrous note, slumping to seventh place in a field of eight after the first round of the team event.

The women, appearing in the Games for the first time after the sport was introduced in the 1990 Beijing edition, aggregated 159 with the best two scores of 77 and 82.

China, with 143, led the field followed by the Philippines (149), Thailand (151), South Korea (152), Japan (154), Sri Lanka (158), India (159), and Lebanon (185).

In the individual event, national champion Parnita Grewal returned the best card among the three Indians, with five over par.

Former national champion and Arjuna Award-winner Nonita Lal-Qureshi returned 10 over par and Urvashi Sodhi-Sethi 11 over.

Grewal and Lal-Qureshi's scores were calculated for the team event.

Grewal is at the joint ninth place. Taiwan's Lu Hsiao Chuan and the Philippines' Dorothy Delasin were the joint leaders in the individual event with one under par 71.

Boxer Jitendra Kumar fought bravely before Vyacheslav Burba of Kazakhstan sprang a late volley of jabs to beat him in a 75kg quarter-final bout tonight.

The Commonwealth Games silver medallist was one of the four Indian boxing medal hopes, but could not match the might of the world-ranking Kazakh pugilist who moved into the medal round.

Kumar, who had earlier scored an upset win over Iran's world-ranking boxer S Moosavi, failed to maintain his agility and punch after beginning on a rousing note.

He earned some points and moved ahead in the first two rounds with a couple of left and right punches, but was rattled by the Kazakh in the third round and began buying time in the last two rounds.

Coach Gurbaksh Singh Sandu later told reporters that Kumar performed to his expectations in the first three rounds, but could not match the Kazakh in the last two and gave up the contest.

The Indian medal hopes in boxing now rest on Dingko Singh, Gurcharan Singh, and Harpal Singh. The first two have made it to the second round.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan took their sporting rivalry to sea outside the Thai capital.

The Sadiq brothers Mamoon and Munir closed in on the Indian duo of Ashim Mongia and Pushpendra Garg in the Enterprise class yachting competition.

At the end of the sixth race, the two teams were tied in second place with 17 penalty points. South Korea occupies the top spot with 13.

Four more races in two days of competition remain. The team with the least penalty points wins.

UNI