India win surprise silver, bronze medals in kurash

India today bagged two medals in Kurash, a form of wrestling indigenous to central Asia, with Pincky Balhara and Malaprabha Yallappa Jadhav winning silver and bronze respectively in the women’s 52kg category at the ongoing Asian Games here today.

The 19-yeard-old Pincky lost 0-10 to favourite Gulnor Sulaymanova of Uzbekistan in the gold medal clash to settle for the silver.

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.

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

Kurash is a form of folk wrestling in which the competitors use towels to hold their opponents with an aim to throw them off the feet.

It is making its debut at the Asian Games.

JAKARTA:

DHARUN TO GET ~30 LAKH CASH INCENTIVE

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday lauded Dharun Ayyasamy who won the silver medal in the 400 metre hurdles at the ongoing Jakarta Asian Games and announced a cash incentive of ~30 lakh for him.

Congratulating the 21-yearold athlete from Tirupur, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said Ayyasamy had made everyone proud by his feat.

Ayyasamy had earlier won the gold in the 4x400 metre relay and 400 metre hurdles at the 2016 South Asian games.

A different tournament but the same result for top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu at the Asian Games. She was up against world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and a historic gold medal was within her reach, but Sindhu just didn’t arrive for the final bowing down meekly to Tai 13-21, 16-21 in just 34 minutes.

This was Sindhu’s third loss in a major final within a year, having lost to Saina Nehwal at the Commonwealth Games final and then the World Championship final to Spain’s Carolina Marin. She had also lost the finals at India Open and Thailand Open this year.

Even then Sindhu became the first ever Indian to win a badminton singles silver in the Asian Games. The last times India won a badminton singles medal at the Asian Games was 36 years ago when Syed Modi won bronze medal in men’s singles at the 1982 Games in New Delhi.

Much was expected of world No 3 Sindhu, especially after she beat Japan’s world No 2 Akane Yamaguchi in the semi-final on Monday. But the 23-year-old Hyderabadi surrendered without showing any grit and determination. Most of her shots were within Tai’s reach and the Taipei girl placed them well to earn points. Not once did Tai looked beatable on Tuesday.

Tai, 24, who plays for a local club in Kaohsiung City back home, kept rotating the shuttle well with perfect court covering. The experience of beating the Indian star at ease in the last five meetings before Tuesday’s encounter meant Tai had the upperhand even before the first point was played. Sindhu last

CHENNAI: JAKARTA:

defeated Tai in the Rio Olympics pre-quarterfinals in 2016.

Tai opened up a five-point lead straightaway, and though Sindhu made it 3-5 and then 7-11, but the world No 1 always kept her nose ahead. In the second game, even before Sindhu could come into her own after levelling the scores at 4-4, Tai was well within her target of gold as she quickly opened up a 11-7 lead. Tain did not have to push really