Hockey women, sailors take silver; boxer Amit, women's squash team in finals

Jakarta: India continued to swell its overall medal tally, with the women's hockey team taking a silver, while sailors gave a silver and bronze, even as the squash teams had opposite results in the semi-finals and boxer Amit Panghal entered the finals on 13th day of the 18th Asian Games here on Friday.

Among others, middle-weight (75kg) boxer Vikas Krishan settled for a bronze medal after conceding a walkout in the semi-finals against Abilkhan Amankul of Kazakhstan due to an injury.

The disappointments of the day were Indian singles paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika, who lost their respective singles matches.

On 13th day, India is sitting at the eighth spot with a total of 65 medals (13 gold, 23 silver 29 bronze), equalling the highest tally of 2010 Guangzhou edition.

The hopes of a gold medal were pinned on India's last event of the day but a 2-1 win by Japan's women's hockey team condemned them to take silver.

Japan took the lead through Minami Shimizu in the 11th minute but India pulled the level through Neha Goyal in the 25th minute. Motomi Kawamura regained Japan's lead in the 44th minute. India couldn't find their equaliser and had to settle for the silver medal.

It was India's second silver medal in women's hockey in Asiad history. The last time they had finished second was in the 1998 edition in which they lost to South Korea with the same scoreline.

In the sailing competition, Varsha Gautham and Sweta Shervegar bagged a silver medal in the 49er FX women category, while Harshita Tomar settled for bronze in the Open Laser 4.7 category.

In the 49er FX category, Varsha and Sweta scored a total of 44 points and 40 net points to finish second behind Singapore's Min Kimberly Lim and Rui Qi Cecilia Low, who got 44 total points and 14 net points.

In the Open Laser 4.7 category, Harshita scored a total of 62 points and 50 net points to finish third.

In squash, India's women's team of Joshana Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Tanvi Khanna entered the finals with a 2-0 victory over Malaysia. In the finals, India will take on Hong Kong, who defeated Japan 2-0.

Joshna Chinappa registered a 3-2 (10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 9-11) victory over legendary Nicol David, while Dipika crushed Low Wee Wern 3-0 (2-11, 9-11, 7-11) to give India an unassailable 2-0 lead.

In the men's category, the Indian team, comprising Saurav Ghoshal, Harinder Sandhu, Ramit Tondon and Mahesh Mangaonkar, lost 0-2 to Hong Kong and settled for bronze medal.

While Sourav lost 0-3 (6-11, 9-11, 11-13) to Max Lee, Harinder fell 1-3 (9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 3-11) to Leo Au as Hong Kong won 2-0 to set up a title clash against Malaysia.

In table tennis, it was the end of road for singles shuttlers as Manika Batra and Achanta Sharath Kamal lost their respective singles matches while men's and women's team shined.

Sharath lost 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 16-14, 9-11 to Chuang Chihyuan of Taiwan in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals.

Manika lost 2-11, 8-11, 8-11, 11-6, 4-11 in a pre-quarterfinal contest against Wang Manyu of China.

In boxing, Amit advanced to the finals as he registered a 3-2 split decision victory over Carlo Paalam of the Philippines to enter the finals of the men's light flyweight (49 kg) category.

Amit was off to a slow start against Carlo as both boxers were a bit cautious during the opening round. Both boxers employed a lower guard and were equally matched.

The second round picked up a bit of tempo as the two boxers tried to up the ante. Amit managed to land a few scoring punches as the second round drew to a close.

That prompted Carlo to employ a higher guard in the third and final round. As a result, although the Indian dominated the round, he was unable to land too many scoring punches.

However, Amit's performance was enough to give him a victory by a split decision.