AFTER JAKARTA HAUL, HOPE FOR KURASH
JAKARTA: Beyond featuring in cultural exchange programmes with some former Soviet Union states, the martial art form of kurash had few takers in India. That could change after a silver and a bronze at the Asian Games.
Like other disciplines not affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association, India’s 14-member kurash squad had to pay for its kits and training in Uzbekistan before coming here. They are now going back with Pincky Balhara and Malaprabha Yallappa Jadhav winning a silver and bronze medal respectively.
For Pincky, neighbours and relatives had to arrange for funds to go to Uzbekistan and for her kits. In Jakarta, union sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore spent an hour watching the Indians in action.
“Rathore Sir met us during the event and promised to give us all support. We are hoping to get the government’s as well as IOA’S recognition soon,” said Ravi Kapoor, secretary-general of the Kurash Association of India (KAI). “Like many other sport, we too could have faced a cut in our squad for the Games, but the minister allowed all 14 to travel to Jakarta,” he said. “We knew that a lot of questions would have been asked if we did not win a medal here. Now everybody in India knows what kurash is.” JAKARTA: It proved to be a shortlived dream for India as their hopes of winning an Asian Games gold medal in women’s team squash ended in heartbreak after surrendering meekly to superior rivals Hong Kong 0-2 in the final at the GBK Squash Stadium here on Saturday.
India, silver medallists at the 2014 edition in Incheon, had stunned favourites Malaysia in the semi-finals on Friday, raising hopes of adding more yellow metal to the gold the men’s team had bagged in the 2014 Games.
The team’s strategy to open the proceedings with Sunayna Kuruvilla, a promising youngster, in the opening tie looked perfect as the 19-year-old from Kerala had got the better of Ho Tze-lok in the 1-2 defeat to Hong Kong in their last preliminary round match two days ago. The idea was for Sunayna to do an encore with a repeat win over Hong Kong’s top player so that Dipika Pallikal, Sunayna’s cousin, or Joshna Chinappa could step in and seal victory.
But the tactic failed as the Hong Kong player, ranked 48 in the world, proved too strong and Sunayna lost 1-3 (8-11, 6-11, 12-10, 3-11) in just 40 minutes.
In the next rubber, Chinappa, who was not in her elements, was unable to produce the level of performance she displayed while stunning the World No 1 Nicol David on Friday evening in the semi-finals. She went down tamely in just 28 minutes as Annie Chi Wing wrapped it up 11-3, 11-9, 11-5 to hand Hong Kong the gold medal, their first since the women’s squash competition was introduced at the Asian Games in 2010.
“I did my best to challenge Annie, who is more experienced in the game. A loss against her in the last meeting was very much in my mind and it kept reminding me about her quality play,” Chinappa said of her loss.