Guangzhou: Bajrang Lal Takhar created history by notching up the first rowing gold medal in Asian Games as the rowers fetched three more medals for India while the shooters chipped in with a bronze on a productive seventh day of competitions here on Friday.
Apart from Bajrang Lal's gold in men's singles scull, the Indian men's eight team grabbed silver and the women claimed the pair bronze to make it a very fruitful day at the International Rowing Centre here.
The shooters, who have been a pale shadow of themselves at the Aoti shooting range, accounted for a bronze with Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh and Zoravar Singh Sandhu finishing third in the men's team trap event.
With the addition of four medals in the morning session, India's medal tally climbed to two gold, eight silver and ten bronze. India had finished tenth on the medals table in the last Asian Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26.
Commonwealth champion Dinesh Kumar also had a good day as he became the second Indian boxer to assure himself of a medal by advancing to the light heavyweight 81kg semifinals after out-punching Korean Jinho Heo. Paramjeet Samota was the first Indian to assure himself of a bronze by reaching the semifinals of 91+ weight category.
Two other boxers - Vikas Krishan and V Santosh Kumar - also won their respective bouts to cruise into the quarterfinals.
Star tennis player Sania Mirza toppled 6th seed Chinese Shuai Zhang to seal a quarterfinal berth in the women's singles while Somdev Devvarman and Karan Rastogi routed their rivals to move into pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles.
The women's hockey team also kept themselves in the reckoning for a bronze medal with a thumping 13-0 victory over minnows Thailand but star cuiest Pankan Advani, who fetched India's first gold medal, was knocked out of the snooker singles competition by China's Junhui Ding.
It was the 29-year-old Bajrang Lal, an army man, who stole the spotlight on Friday by fetching the second gold medal for India.
Takhar led the 2000m race from start to finish and rowed his way to the gold with a few lengths of boats to spare in 7 minutes and 4.78 seconds.
The gold, that followed the two silver medals won in the men's light weight 4s and 4s event on Thursday, took the medal haul from rowing to five.
Rajasthan-born Bajrang Lal, who won Asian championship gold last year in Korea and was the pre-event favourite, was followed across the finish line by Chinese Taipei's Wang Ming Hui (7:07.33), who took the silver, and Iraq's Haeider Hamarasheid (7:10.10), who won the bronze.
"I won silver in the 2006 Asian Games. I had prepared for four years to fight for the gold medal today. I knew I would make it," Takhar said.
Later, the women's duo of Pratima Puhana and Pramila Minz, both in their teens, grabbed the pairs bronze in 7 minutes and 47.50 seconds, well behind gold medal winners China, who crossed the finish line far ahead in 7:22.06.
The rowing event came to an end with the Indian men's eight team clinching the silver by clocking 5:49.50, way behind hosts China who timed 5:37.44 but well ahead of bronze medal winners Uzbekistan (5:55.96).
The Indians - Lokesh Kumar, Satish Joshi, Saji Thomas, Jenil Krishnan, Anil Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Manjeet Singh and Girraj Singh - finished more than a boat and half length ahead of the third-placed team.
India's veteran shooting trio of Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh and Zoravar Singh Sandhu managed to edge out hosts China by one point for the team bronze medal in the men's trap event.
The Indian trap members logged 341 points, with Asian record holder Manavjit leading the way, which enabled them to finish one point ahead of China (340).
However, the women's trap team of Shagun Chowdhary, Seema Tomar and Shreyasi Singh failed to finish on the podium. The three finished fourth with a score of 181, a point behind bronze-medallists Korea.
India's women's hockey team scored their second win when they thrashed Thailand 13-0. Skipper Surinder Kaur scored four goals while Rani found the net thrice.
India had earlier lost to Japan (0-3) and Korea (0-1) while they had beaten Malaysia (4-0). They now have six points and stand fourth in the group A standings.
More good news came for the Indian contingent from Aaoti Tennis centre where Sania Mirza, Somdev Devvarman and Karan Rastogi won their respective singles matches.
Unseeded Sania toppled sixth seed Chinese Shuai Zhang 6-2, 6-2 to seal a quarterfinal berth in the women's singles second round.
Second seed Somdev and seventh seed Karan demolished Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa of Qatar and Myalikkuli Mamedkuliyev of Turkmenistan respectively with an identical 6-0, 6-0 scoreline to move into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals.
India's receding hopes in cue sports suffered a major blow on Friday when billiards event gold medallist Pankaj Advani was knocked out of the snooker singles competition by China's Junhui Ding but compatriot Aditya Mehta kept the Indian challenge alive by sailing into the quarterfinals.
Advani took on top-seed Junhui and was hammered 1-4 as the Chinese cuiest was on song to bring up superb breaks of 64, 84, 88 and 81 to simply outclass the Indian on way to the last eight.
However, the other Indian in the fray, Mehta displayed fine potting skills by occupying the cue table for most of the time to win the best of seven frames pre-quarterfinal 4-2 against Chinese Taipei's Yu-Lun Wu.
In squash, ace racqueter Saurav Ghosal kept the tricolour fluttering by progressing into the semifinals of the men's singles squash event, even as the women players Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal bow out of medal contention.
In golf, medal hope Rashid Khan carded two-over 74 to slip to the fourth spot while his teammates too were off colour on the penultimate day. Besides Rashid's 74, Abhinav Lohan (74) and Rahul Bajaj (78) also had a forgottable day as Indian team dropped to fourth spot from third.
Teenage archer Deepika Kumari led the Indian women's archery team into the pre-quarterfinals with a creditable display, which also helped her qualify for the next round along with another budding youngster Rimil Buriuly. More fancied compatriots Dola Banerjee and Laishram Bombayla Devi put up a flop show.
However, disappointment was in store in Taekwondo as all the three Indian fighters in the reckoning on Friday - Surendra Bhandari, Chandan Lakra and Srishit Singh - crashed out of their respective events.
Bhandari was first to suffer defeat when he lost his opening round 7-8 in the men's 63kg category to Kazakhstan's Darkhan Kassymkulov.
Lakra then raised hopes of winning a medal in men's 68kg category by winning his first round bout but fizzled out in the quarterfinals.
Lakra beat Malaysia's Omar Sidek Mohd Afifudin 6-2 but then lost to Mongolia's Naranchimeg Erdenebaatar 7-19 in the last-eight stage.
A lot was expected from Srishti Singh in the women's Under 62kg category as a win in quarterfinals would have assured her a bronze but she lost 5-7 to Jordan's Shaden Thweib.
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