Hurdlers Ashwini, Abraham; boxer Vikas Krishan win Asiad golds (Roundup)

GUANGZHOU - Hurdlers Ashwini Chidananda and Joseph Abraham and boxer Vikas Krishnan won a gold apiece, while a silver and three bronzes took India’s tally to 53 after 13 days of competitions at the Asian Games here Thursday. The golds saw India climb two notches to lie eighth in the overall medals tally.

Three Indian boxers, as also the men’s and women’s kabaddi teams, are still in the gold hunt.

India’s 53 medals comprise 10 gold, 14 silver and 29 bronze.

China head the table with 374 medals (180-103-91), followed by South Korea-217 (72-60-85) and Japan-193 (39-68-86). Iran, Kazakhstan Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan are the other countries above India.

Boxer Dinesh Kumar won a silver while the bronzes came from the men’s hockey team, athlete Tintu Luka (women’s 800 metres) and wrestler Mausam Khatri (men’s freestyle 96 kg).

With a personal best timing of 56.15 seconds, Ashwini clinched the third gold medal for India from the track and field event at the Aoti Main Stadium.

The silver went to China’s Wang Xing with a timing of 56.76 secs and Japan’s Satomi Kubokokura got the bronze with a timing of 56.83 secs.

India’s Jauna Murmu was fourth with 56.88 secs.

Abraham clocked his season’s best timing of 49.96 seconds to win India’s fourth gold medal in the track and field event.

Bandar Yahya Sharahili (50.29 secs) of Saudi Arabia took the silver and Japan’s Naohiro Kawakita the bronze (50.37 secs).

Santosh Kumar Virothu (64kg), Vijender Singh (75kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) booked their place in the title clash after winning their semi-final bouts.

The trio will take to the ring Friday.

Besides the gold and silver, India have also won four bronze medals in boxing.

After losing to Malaysia in a match that was virtually in their pocket, India redeemed themselves somewhat by claiming the men’s hockey bronze, defeating South Korea 1-0.

Tushar Khandekar scored a field gold in the 39th minute at the Aoti Hockey Field to give India its second Asian Games hockey bronze after 1986.

India were leading 3-2 in the semifinals Tuesday before Malaysia got the equaliser three minutes from time and went on to win via a golden goal.

Tintu Luka, who had a disappointing finish in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, led the 800 metres pack right from the start, but couldn’t keep pace in the last 50 metres and finished third in 2:01.36 seconds.

The gold went to Kazhakstan’s Margarita Matsko with a personal best 2:00.29, while China’s Truong Thanh Hang grabbed the silver in 2:00.91.

Tintu’s compatriot Sinimole Paulose finished seventh in 2:06.95.

Mausam got the better of Jaegang Kim of South Korea 3-1 in the bronze medal play-off to get India its third bronze in the sport but Rajiv Tomar and Nirmala Devi crashed out in their respective categories.

Mausam defeated Syrian Alkarrad Raja 3-1 in the repechage round.

He had lost 1-3 to Taimuraz Tigiyev of Kazakhstan in the pre-quarterfinals and was moved to the repechage round.

The Indian men registered an easy 52-17 win over Japan while the women won a close battle 23-22 against Iran in extra time to enter the finals of the kabaddi competition.

The Indian women beat Maldives 3-0 to finish ninth in the volleyball competition.

The Indians did not face much resistance from the Maldives and won 25-4, 25-5, 25-7 in 46 minutes at the Guangwai Gymnasium.