TT men clinch historic bronze

Jakarta, Aug. 28: Indian table tennis men’s team settled for a historic bronze medal after losing 0-3 to South Korea in a lop-sided semifinal at the 18th Asian Games here on Tuesday.

The team comprising G. Sathiyan, Achanta Sharath Kamal and A. Amalraj couldn’t put up a fight against the mighty Koreans, who set up a summit clash against defending champions China in a repeat of 2014 edition.

G. Sathiyan suffered a 11-9, 9-11, 3-11, 3-11 loss to Lee Sangsu in the opening game as India lagged 0-1.

Experienced Sharath Kamal did put up a fight before going down 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11 to Young Sik Jeoung in the second match.

In the deciding third game, Amalraj was beaten 5-11, 711, 11-4, 7-11 by Woojin Jang as South Korea won 3-0.

India did not have a single medal in the sport which was introduced in the Games program in 1958. Jadhav winning silver and bronze respectively in the women’s 52kg category.

The 19-year-old Pincky lost 0-10 to Gulnor Sulaymanova of Uzbekistan in the gold medal clash.

Pincky earlier defeated Tsou Chiawen of Taipei 5-0 in Round of 16 before getting the better of Susanti Terry Kusumawardani of Sri Lanka 3-0 in the quarterfinals. She beat Abdumajidova Oysuluv of Uzbekistan 1-0 in the Last Four stage.

Yallappa lost to Sulaymanova 0-10 in semifinal to claim the bronze as both the semifinalists are assured of medals. — PTI

Silver and bronze from Kurash