Asian Games: India clinch five medals on day one

Hangzhou: The experienced trio of Mehuli Ghosh, Ramita Jindal and Ashi Chouksey's bagged the women's team silver while Ramita also clinched an individual bronze in the 10m air rifle event as Indian shooters made an impressive start to their Asian Games campaign, here on Sunday.

A combined score of 1,886.0 earned the Indian troika the second spot behind hosts China, who smashed the Asian record with a score of 1,896.6. Junior world champion Ramita then won the individual bronze in her event, shooting 230.1 in the eightshooter finals.

China won both the gold and silver medals in the event with Huang Yuting breaking the Games record with a score of 252.7 on way to top podium finish. Han Jiayu came in second with 251.3 points.

The 19-year-old Ramita was in contention for a silver medal before she fell behind because of a rank poor 9.9 on the 13th shot. Mehuli, the other Indian to make the eight-shooter final, finished fourth with a score of 208.43.

India play out 1-1 draw with Myanmar, enter round of 16 in men''s football

Riding on a Sunil Chhetri strike, the Indian men's football team held Myanmar to a 1-1 draw and progressed to the round of 16 in the Asian Games on Sunday.

They will play Saudi Arabia in the prequarters. Chhetri scored from the spot in the 23rd minute but it was Rahim Ali who earned the penalty when he was brought down inside the box by Hein Zeyar Lin.

While Lin was shown a yellow card for his sliding tackle, the peerless Chhetri made no mistake in finding the back of the net, in what was a repeat of the act he performed against Bangladesh in the second group game two days ago.

Nagal, Myneni-Ramkumar make pre-quarterfinals with easy victories India's top tennis player Sumit Nagal moved to the men's singles prequarterfinals of the Asian Games without losing a game as he expectedly thrashed Macau's hapless Ho Tin Marco Leung, here on Sunday.

It was expected to be an easy second-round match for the 159th ranked Nagal, whose rival does not even have a ranking on the ATP computer. The fifth seed Nagal, who had got a first round bye, needed just 45 minutes to dispatch his opponent 6-0 6-0.

Zhukayev was leading 3-0 in the match when Mukhidinov decided to concede the contest.

Nikhat begins campaign with dominant win

In a rematch of World Championship final, top Indian boxer Nikhat Zareen outclassed Vietnam's Thi Tam Nguyen 5-0 to move to the women's 50kg pre-quarterfinals while Preeti Pawar (54kg) sealed a place in the quarterfinals of the Asian Games here on Sunday.

Two-time world champion Zareen defeated the twotime Asian Champion Nguyen by unanimous decision.

Also Putting up a dominating show was talented Indian boxer Preeti, who notched up an RSC (referee stops contest) win over Jordan's Silina Alhasanat. Zareen will face Chorong Bak of South Korea in the Round of 16 while a tough bout awaits Preeti.

The Indian teenager will have to fight seasoned Kazakh boxer and three-time worlds medallist Zhaina Shekerbekova.

Arjun-Arvind rowing pair win silver; coxed-eight team too comes in 2nd

In a rollicking start, Indian rowers powered their way to two silver and a bronze medal in the Asian Games.

On a pleasant morning with the conditions just perfect for rowing at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre, Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh opened the country's account with a silver medal in the men's lightweight doubles sculls event.

The Indian duo clocked 6:28.18s to finish behind China's Junjie Fan and Man Sun, who won gold with 6:23.16s. The Uzbekistan pair of Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroliyev bagged the bronze clocking 6:33.42s.

The silver was just a precursor of the things to come as the gruelling men's coxed eight event saw a keen tussle between China and India before the latter finished second with a time of 5:43.01s, which was 2.84s behind the host team, which clocked 5:40.17.

The Indian men's coxed-eight team comprised Neeraj, Nareskh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Puneet Kumar and Ashish. (PTI)