Incheon: Indian paddlers will return home empty handed from the 17th Asian Games as the country’s campaign in the discipline came to an end at the Suwon Gymnasium on Thursday.
India’s last medal hopes in table tennis – Soumyajit Ghosh, Manika Batra and Ankita Das – lost their matches and were knocked out of the singles competition. Ghosh lost his men’s singles pre-quarter-final 1-4 to North Korea’s Sinhyok Pak in 33 minutes. The 21-year-old Indian took off well by winning the first game 11-2.
However, Pak turned the tables and went on to clinch the next four games 11-7, 11-8, 13-11, 11-8.
Earlier, Manika was blanked 0-4 (9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 8-11) in the women’s pre-quarter-final by Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa while Ankita was shown the door 2-4 (8-11, 5-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9, 4-11) in the second round by Hong Kong’s N.G. Wing Nam.
Manika, World No.147, found the going tough right from the outset against the World No.8, a silver medallist in the team event of the 2012 London Olympics. Manika produced her best but Kasumi was just too good for her.
Men triumph in volleyball
Indian men’s team defeated Thailand 3-1 in the 5th-8th place classification match after the women suffered a 0-3 reverse to Hong Kong to finish 8th. In the men’s semis round for 5th-8th place match, The Indian men showed rallied to beat the Thais. India lost the first game 22-25, but fought back strongly to claim the next three games 25-18 25-23 25-20 and garnered 97 total points to Thailand’s 86.
