Asian Games 2014; Day 7: As it Happened...

Welcome to our live coverage of the 17th Asian Games in Incheon..

So that's it from here today. Catch the action again tomorrow. 

18:02 IST: Tennis: Ankita Raina-Divij Sharan lose 6-4, 6-2 vs Korea's Mi Yoo- Yongkyu Lim in Mixed Doubles 2nd round match.

17:58 IST: Boxing: Amritpreet Singh loses his Rd 16 bout after a lot of confusion and indecision from the judges

17:37 IST: Boxing: 2nd Round to the Korean but he's also been given a warning.

17:35 IST: Boxing Amritpreet wins the 1st Round with 2 out of 3 judges ruling in his favour.

17:20 IST: Boxing: Rd of 16 bout featuring Amritpreet Singh vs Park Namhyeong (S Korea) will be the last piece of Indian action today.

17:11 IST: Boxing: Akhil Kumar gets his mouth guard knocked out and loses his QF vs Charley Suarez

Sandeep Sejwal ends Indian swimming's poor run, fetches bronze

Sandeep Sejwal gave India's floundering swimming campaign a massive fillip by fetching a rare bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke. The 25-year-old topped his heats by clocking 28.25s before holding on to the third spot in the final race with a timing of 28.26s. The gold medal was bagged by Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Balandin, who bettered the Games record of 27.80s with a timing of 27.78s.
The silver was clinched by Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki, who clocked 27.89s.

Sejwal's medal came as a huge respite for the Indian swimming team, which had been struggling to even make the finals of various events till now. In the previous edition of the Games, India had ended a 24-year medal drought in discipline with Virdhawal Khade's bronze in the 50m butterfly event.

Before Khade, Khajan Singh had won a medal in the Asiad way back in 1986. He had clinched a silver in the 200m butterfly event. Sejwal clocked 28.26 in the final. Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Balandin won the gold with a time of 27.78 creating a new Asian Games record. Sejwal's bronze (50m Breaststroke) is India's third medal in 60 years and ninth overall at the Games.

India assured of two silvers in squash team events

Incheon: Indian squash players continued their splendid showing in the ongoing Asian Games with both the men's and women's teams assuring the country of at least two more silver medals after winning their respective semi-final matches at the Yeorumul Courts.

If the women's team comprising Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal and Anaka Alankamony outplayed their Singapore opponents 2-0 then Mahesh Mangaonkar, Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu also eased past Kuwait 2-0. Joshna started the proceedings on a positive note as the Chennai ace blanked Eunok Park 11-6 13-11 11-8 in 34 minutes.

Next up was Dipika and though the World No.12 lost a game, she got past Sunmi Song 11-4 11-5 8-11 11-5 to make it easy for the Indian team. Anaka did not have to appear on court.
In the men's draw, Mangaonkar started on the right foot as the Mumbai boy outplayed Kuwait's Altamimi A I A Ammar 11-4 11-3 12-10 in 37 minutes.

Ghosal then took on Almezayen Abdullah in a marathon encounter to finally come up trumps 11-8 7-11 11-9 5-11 11-3 in one hour and two minutes to seal the match. Sandhu's final effort was not needed in the match. Ghosal has already added a historic silver to the medal list -- a first in the Asian Games squash -- in the men's singles event, though the Kolkata-born player was disappointed to lose the gold to Kuwait's Abdullah Almezayen.

Dipika, on the other hand, has won a bronze medal in the women's singles event, also a first for Indian squash.

15:31 IST: Indian women in quarters of Asiad volleyball

Indian women spikers stormed into the quarter-finals with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over the Maldives. India won 25-12, 25-7, 25-11 in 54 minutes at the Ansan Sangroksu Gymnasium here. They raced away to a comfortable lead from the beginning of the match. Tiji Raju top scored for India with 16 points. India take on China in the last eight clash Saturday.

15:27 IST: India beat Malaysia 6-1 to reach semifinals in Women's hockey

14:33 IST: Boxer Kuldeep Singh enters quarter-finals of the men's light heavy (81kg) category.

Indian boxer Kuldeep Singh advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's light heavy (81kg) division in the 17th Asian Games at the Seonhak Gymnasium. Kuldeep won 2-1 in a split decision against Thailand's Anavrat Thongkrathok in the pre-quarterfinal. The Indian won 29-28 on the first judge's decision while the second judge ruled 29-27 in favour of Thongkratok. However, Kuldeep won the verdict of the third judge, who favoured the 25-year-old Indian with a score of 29-28.

14:29 IST: Ghosal beats Almezayen 3-2 in the Men's team semi-final to guide India into the finals. India beat Kuwait 2-0. Ghosal had lost to the same opponent in a heartbreaking gold medal match in the Men's singles. Sweet revenge!

Indian Men's & Women's Squash Teams are through to squash team event finals.

13:50 IST: Sanam, Yuki seal singles quarterfinal berths; Ankita bow out

Sanam Singh recovered from a sluggish start to move to the men's singles quarterfinals and later combined with Saketh Myneni to seal a place in the men's doubles last-eight also as Indian players continued their dominating show on the tennis courts at the Asian Games here on Friday.

Ranked just inside top-400 at 397, Sanam beat 190th ranked Chung, 7-5 6-1 the third round, which lasted one hour and 24 minutes at Yeorumul Tennis Courts. Also advancing to the men's singles last-eight was Yuki Bhambri, who defeated Indonesia's Christopher Rungkat 6-3 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes in his third round contest.

After a break, Sanam along with big-serving Saketh Myneni, seeded fifth, took just 32 minutes to trounce Saudi Arabia's Ammar Alhaqbani and Omar Fahmi Ahmed 6-0 6-1 in the second round.

A similar dominating performance was dished out by fifth seeds Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare in the women's doubles second round as they blanked Mongolia's Bolor Enkhbayar and Gotov Dulguunjargal 6-0 6-0 in just 35 minutes. Sania and Prarthana will now play quarterfinals.

However, Ankita Raina had a disappointing outing as she crashed out of women's singles with a 2-6 6-4 1-6 defeat against fourth seed Japanese Eri Hozumi in the third round, lasting one hour and 55 minutes. With Ankita's defeat, India's challenge has ended in women's singles. Ankita, though, is still in fray in the mixed doubles with Divij Sharan.
Taking the court first this morning was Sanam, who was trailing 1-4 in the opening set but turned the match on its head by reeling off four games on the trot to take lead.

Sanam stood out with audacious cross court winners. The fighting spirit kept the Chandigarh lad going despite a poor start. The 190th ranked Chung, who earlier was dominating with his solid serve, felt the heat and started to make a lot of unforced errors. Sanam closed the contest when Chung failed to return a ferocious forehand from the Indian. One more win would assure Sanam at least a bronze medal.

13:42 IST: Saina Nehwal knocked out by her nemesis Wang Yihan of China 21-18 9-21 7-21 in the quarter-final of the Women's singles.

13:09 IST: Wang Yihan makes a strong comeback in the second game to take it 21-9 against Saina Nehwal.

12:53 IST: Saina Nehwal wins the first game 21-18 against China's Wang Yihan in the Women's singles quarter-final.

12:38 IST: Women's squash team assured of medal in Asian Games

India's squash players continued their splendid show in the ongoing Asian Games with the women's team assuring the country another medal after humbling South Korea 2-0 in the semi-final clash at the Yeorumul Courts, here on Friday.

Joshna Chinappa started the proceedings on a positive note as the Chennai ace blanked Eunok Park 11-6 13-11 11-8 in 34 minutes. Next up was Dipika Pallikal and though the World No.12 lost a game but got past Sunmi Song 11-4 11-5 8-11 11-5 to make it easy for the Indian team as Anaka Alankamony did not have to appear on court.

Saurav Ghosal has already added a historic silver to the medal list -- a first in Asian Games squash -- in the men's singles event, though the Kolkata-born player was disappointed to lose the gold to Kuwait's Abdullah Almezayen.

Dipika, on the other hand, has won a bronze medal in the women's singles event, also a first for Indian squash. India are also set to surpass their 2010 tally of three bronze, having won a bronze and silver through Pallikal and Ghosal, respectively.

In the final, India take on Malaysia. That match is schedules for IST 10:30 start on Saturday. Malaysia will start as overwhelming favorites in that gold medal match with No. 1 Nicol David & World No. 7 Low Wee Wern in their ranks.

12:50 IST: Kuldeep Singh entered the quarter-final of the Men's Light Heavy (81kg).

12:32 IST: In Volleyball, India beat Maldives 3-0 (25-12 25-7 25-11) to enter Women's quarterfinal.

12:25 IST: Saina Nehwal in action now against China's Wang Yihan in the Women's singles quarter-final. Wang is ranked third in the world, while Saina is seventh.

12:15 IST: Talukdar, Deepika ousted from individual recurve events

India's Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari were knocked out of the recurve individual men's and women's elimination round archery events of the 17th Asian Games at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field. Talukdar, who had blanked Witthaya Thamwong of Thailand 6-0 in the 1/16 eliminations, was thrashed 1-7 by a rampaging Khairul Anuar Mohamad of Malaysia in the 1/8 round match.

The Malaysian was in superb form with all his shots fetching nine points or more. In contrast, the Indian archer lacked the consistency to get top scores and barring the third set, which was a 28-28 draw, he was outscored in all the other three sets. Deepika, who won two gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, failed to get into the quarter-finals after losing her 1/8 elimination round match to Indonesia's Diananda Choirunisa 0-6.

Deepika came into the 17th Asiad with hopes of ending her individual medal jinx in the Asian Games. The 20-year-old won a bronze medal in the women's recurve team event in 2010 Guangzhou Games but missed out an individual bronze by a whisker. But the youngster found the going tough against Choirunisa and was comprehensively outscored in all three sets, giving her opponent an easy passage to the quarters.

12:05 IST: Indian men's archery recurve team eliminated

Indian men's archery recurve team were ousted of the 17th Asian Games following their 1/8 elimination round loss to Hong Kong at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field. The Indian men's team of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar lost 3-5 (53-54, 54-42, 51-51, 52-53). The Indian trio were edged out 53-54 in the first set but came back strongly in the second set 54-42 to erase the 0-2 deficit against the Hong Kong consisting Man Chun Chui, Calvin Wai Kar Lee and Kin Hing Ma. Both the teams shared a point after the third set ended in a tie 51-51 but in the fourth set, the Indians lost again 52-53 to exit the competition.

12:00 IST: Sania Mirza and P Thombare beat Mongolian pair of Enkhbayar/Gotov 6-0, 6-0 in just 35 minutes to reach Women's doubles quarter-final.

11:51 IST: Shiv Thapa through to the 56kg quarter final after his bout was stopped within a few seconds against his Pakistani opponent for a TKO.

11:30 IST: Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh beat Ammar Alhaqbani and Omar Ahmed 6-0 6-1 to reach men's doubles quarter finals. It has been a great day for Sanam today.

11:11 IST: Korea beat India in 3 straight sets in the Women's team Recurve semi-final. India will now take on Japan for the bronze medal on Sunday.

10:46 IST: Joshana Chinappa put India ahead against Korea as she beat Park Eunok in straight games. India lead the semi-final 1-0.

10:37 IST: In Badminton, Siki Reddy and Manu Attri lost to Singapore's Danny Bawa and Yu Yan Vanessa 18-21 23-21 15-21 in Mixed Doubles Round of 16.

10:23 IST: Here is a round-up of India's fortunes on Day 7 so far:

India got off to a great start with a silver in Men's Centre Fire Pistol Team Event. Sandeep Sejwal made it to the finals of the Men's 50m Breaststroke by winning his Heat. In a major upset, Deepika Kumari and Jayanta Talukdar were knocked out in Recurve Individual Events. Parupalli Kashyap ran into Lee Chong Wei in the Round of 16 of Single's badminton and was brushed aside by the Malaysian 21-12, 21-11. In Tennis, both Yuki Bhambri & Sanam Singh made it to Men's Singles quarter-finals.

10:14 IST: Saurzbh Sangvekar (below) dives in at the start of his men's 1500m freestyle heat.

10:10 IST: Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap failed to pass the Asian Games test as the ace shuttler lost to World No.1 Lee Chong Wei 0-2 in the men's singles badminton pre-quarterfinals at the Gyeyang Gymnasium.

It was also heartbreak for India's mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri, who lost a hard fought battle in the quarterfinals after losing to the Singapore pair of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo 21-18 21-23 21-15 in just under 50 minutes.

The duo had notched up a stunning straight-game win over World No.10 Chinese pair of Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan in the pre-quarterfinals yesterday.

Earlier in the men's singles match, the top Malaysian shuttler dispatched the unseeded Kashyap 21-12 21-11 in straight games of 17 minutes each.

Kashyap, 28, who got a bye in the opening round, did get the better of Afghanistan's Iqbal Ahmad Shekib in the second round but failed to pass the top test.

The Hyderabadi shuttler looked overawed by Chong Wei's presence and committed a lot of unforced errors despite repeated warnings from coach Pullela Gopichand.
World No.10 PV Sindhu had already bowed out of the women's single event while sixth-seeded Saina Nehwal is still in contention to win a medal.

09:41 IST: Laxmirani Majhi and Atanu Das are through to the quarter-finals in their respective Recurve Individual Event.

Shooting: Indian men's team clinches silver in 25m center fire pistol

India bagged their second silver in the 17th Asian Games as the men's shooting team finished second in the 25 metre center fire pistol at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range. The Indian trio of Pemba Tamang, Gurpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar scored a combined 1740-68x to finish behind China's team of Yongde Jin, Chuanlin Li and Feng Ding, who fired 1742-56x to take gold.

For India, Tamang shot 288-22x (93, 99, 96 in precision and 99, 97, 97 in rapid) while Gurpreet scored 292-25x (98, 99, 95 in precision and 95, 96, 97 in rapid). 2012 Olympic silver medallist Vijay shot 285-21x (95, 94, 96 in precision and 100, 98, 96 in rapid) to help India get their 16th overall medal and eighth from the shooting range.

South Korea, with the team of Youngmin Kim, Daekyu Jang and Jinil Kim, scored 1739-54x to win bronze ahead of Vietnam. However, none of the Indians managed to finish on the podium in the individual event.

Pemba Tamang, Gurpreet and Vijay finished eighth, ninth and 12th respectively. The individual gold went to Qatar's Oleg Engachev while China's Jin took silver and Singapore's Bin Gai won bronze.
25m centre fire pistol men's team event. The Indian team comprised of Gurpreet Singh, Pemba Tamang and Vijay Kumar.

Silver medal at Asian Games 2014 , Korea — Vijay Kumar (@vijay_19sh) September 26, 2014

09:37 IST: Clearly not a good day for Indian archers as Jayanta Talukdar is also knocked out in Recurve Men's Individual Event.

09:32 IST: Lajjakumari Gauswami finished seventh in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women's Finals.

09:27 IST: In Archery (Recurve), Deepika Kumari knocked out of the women's individual event by Indonesia's Diananda Choiunisa in the pre-quarters. Laxmirani Majhi beat Shu Chi Yuan of Chinese Taipei to progress to the final 8 of the women's individual event.

09:21 IST: Ankita Raina lost to Eri Hozumi of Japan 2-6 6-4 1-6 in Women's singles tennis.

09:07 IST: Abhinav Bindra is clearly not impressed as he tracks the fortunes of Lajja Goswami.

What horrible commentary of the women's 3 p final. Seeing it on mute now. — Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) September 26, 2014

08:55 IST: Indian swimmer Sandeep Sejwal stormed into the final of the men`s 50m breaststroke after finishing atop Heat 2 at the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center.

Sejwal finished with a time of 28.25 seconds, 0.33 ahead of China`s Xiang Ma, who also qualified for the finals.

The 25-year-old Indian will start the finals, to be held later in the day, in the coveted lane 5.

Sejwal`s qualifying time is the second fastest among the starters for the finals. Only Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan registered a faster time than the Indian, finishing his respective Heat in 27.92 seconds.

India is yet to win a medal in swimming at the Incheon Games.

08:49 IST: In Tennis, Yuki Bhambri beat Christopher Rungkat (INA) 6-3 6-3 to secure his place in the Men's singles quarter final.

08:41 IST: Deepika Kumari beat Munira Nurmanova of Uzbekistan, while Laxmirani Majhi beat Asel Sharbekova of Kyrgyzstan in Archery (Recurve). Both made it to the last 16.

In the Men's, Jayanta Talukdar won his 1/16 elimination match to reach the last 16 as well.

08:35 IST: Sanam Singh upsets local favorite Chung Hyeon 7-5 6-1 to reach the quarter-final of the men's singles tennis event. Sanam was trailing 1-4 in the opening set but turned the match on its head by reeling off four games on the trot to take lead.

Sanam stood out with audacious cross court winners. The fighting spirit kept the Chandigarh lad going despite making a poor start.

190th ranked Chung, who earlier was dominating with his solid serve, was now feeling the heat as started to make a lot of unforced errors. Sanam closed the contest when Chung failed to return a ferocious forehand from the Indian.

One more win would assure Sanam at least a bronze medal.

India's schedule on Day 7

India's schedule on the seventh day of the competitions in the Asian Games here on Friday.

Deepika Kumari and Laxmirani Majhi (women's recurve individual 1/16 eliminations 07:40 onwards)

Badminton:

P Kashyap v Lee Chong Wei (men's singles round of 16); Manu Attri/N Sikki Reddy v Chrisnanta Danny Bawa/Neo Yu Yan Vanessa (mixed doubles round of 16); K Srikanth v Son Wanho (men's singles round of 16); Saina Nehwal v Wang Yihan (women's singles quarter finals); Mani Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy v Ahsan Mohammed/Hendra Setiawan (men's doubles quarter finals) (09:30 am onwards)

Boxing:

Shiv Thapa v Nadir (men's 56kg round of 16); Kuldeep Singh v T Anavat (men's 81 kg round of 16); Akhil Kumar v Charly Suarez (men's 60kg round of 16); Amritpreet Singh v N Park (men's 91 kg round of 16) - (03:30 pm onwards)

Golf:

Men's and women's individual and team round 2 (03:50 am onwards)

Equestrian:

Sangram Singh, Fouaad Mirza, M S Rathore, Ajai Poovaiah eventing individual and team final competition jumping

Hockey:

Malaysia v India (Women's Pool A at 01:30 pm).

Sailing:

Men's optimist - Races 7 and 8; women's 29er - races 7 and 8; women's laser radial race 6; women's optimist - races 7 and 8; men's hobie 16 open hull - races 7 and 8 - (07:30 am onwards)

Shooting:

Men's centre fire pistol individual and team; women's 50m rifle 3-P individual and team - (05:30 am onwards)

Squash:

India v Korea (women's team semifinals) (10:00 am)

India v Kuwait (men's team semifinals) (12:30 pm)

Swimming:

Men's 50m breaststroke and 1500m freestyle heats (05:30am onwards)

Tennis:

Sanam Singh v Hyeoni Chung (men's singles round 3); Yuki Bhambri v R Christopher Benjamin (men's singles 3rd round); Ankita Raina v Eri Hozumi (women's singles 3rd round) (07:00 am onwards)

Divij Sharan/Yuki Bhambri v Wong Chun Hun/Yeung Pak Long (men's doubles round 2); Saket Myneni/Sanam Singh v Ammar Alhaqbani/Omar Fahmi Ahmed (men's doubles round 2); Sania Mirza/Prarthana Thombre v B Enkhbayar/D Gotov (women's doubles round 2); Ankita Raina/Sharan Divij v Yoo Mi/Y Lim (mixed doubles round 2); Sania Mirza/Saket Myneni v Sanjar Fayziev/Sabina Sharipova (mixed doubles round 2) - (09:30 am onwards)

Volleyball:

India v Maldives (women's quarterfinal qualification) - (11:30 am)

India v Iran (men's Group C preliminaries) - (01:30 pm).  

Archery:

India v Hong Kong men's team recurve 1/8 eliminations (06:00 am onwards)

India v Uzbekistan women's team recurve 1/8 eliminations (06:00 am onwards)

Jayanta Talukdar and Atanu Das (recurve men's individual 1/32 eliminations 07:10 am onwards)

Round up of Day 6

Indian rowers provided the spark with a couple of bronze medals, while the unfancied women shooters added another bronze as India maintained their 15th position in the overall standings with a tally of 15 in the 17th Asian Games here on Thursday.

Armyman Swaran Singh Virk rowed his way through exhaustion to the third spot in single sculls before the men's squad added the eights title on yet another mixed day for the Indian contingent.

The double trap women's team of Shagun Chowdhary, Shreyasi Singh and Varsha Varman, brought some cheer for the largely off the mark shooters with their bronze medal on the sixth day of competitions.

India were assured of a silver in archery while the squash players were also assured of a bronze each in the men's and women's team events after making the semifinals.

But it was heartbreak for the Indian men's hockey team which went down to arch-rivals Pakistan 1-2 in a group B encounter. The defeat has put India's chances of progressing to the next round in jeopardy.

With the addition of three more to the tally today, India were placed 15th with one gold, a silver and 13 bronze medals. China continued to lead with 152 medals (77-41-34) followed by hosts South Korea (28-33-30) and Japan (27-35-31).

In badminton, star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap advanced to round of last and last 16 respectively but PV Sindhu bowed after losing in the preliminary stage.

Rowers were, however, the stars of today's proceedings for India.

As the rowing events ended at the ChungjuTangeum Lake International Rowing Centre, India's modest tally of medals stood at three bronze, the first having been won yesterday by Dushyant Chauhan in men's lightweight single sculls.

The performance was lower in both quality as well as quantity to the 2010 tally of 1 gold medal, 3 silver and 1 bronze.

Naik Subedar Swaran Singh must be complimented for putting up a brave effort. The timing he clocked here to win the bronze covering the 2000m distance (7 minutes, 10.65 seconds), was better than his performance at the London Olympic Games two years ago timing wise (7:29.66).

But the extra effort the 24-year-old former volleyball player put in towards the end when he tried to ward off the challenge from South Korean rival Kim Dongyong, who secured the silver, saw him collapse due to exhaustion. He fell off the boat into the water, and had to be taken out by the rescue team to the ambulance.

Later the men's picked up the eights bronze by securing the third position behind gold medal winners China and Japan who crossed the finish line in 1:27.96 and 1:30.39 respectively.

The Indian team of Kapil Sharma, Ranjit Singh, 2010 single sculls gold medal winner Bajrang Lal Takhar, P U Robin, K Sawan Kumar, Mohammad Azad, Maninder Singh, Davinder Singh and Mohammed Ahmed started sluggishly to be trailing in fourth at the halfway stage before making the extra effort to clinch the bronze.

At the faraway Gyeonggido shooting range, the women shooters provided the seventh medal for the country so far.

However, for the second successive day India drew a blank at the nearby Ongnyeon pistol and rifle range where hot shot Gagan Narang made his appearance and flopped individually as well as collectively with his team-mates in 50m rifle prone event.

Pistol shooters Gurpreet Singh, Mahaveer Singh and seasoned Samaresh Jung too disappointed.

In archery, atleast another silver medal was assured after the trio of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Sandeep Kumar entered the final of the compound men's team archery event.

The trio of Verma, Chauhan and Kumar defeated Iran, comprising Esmaeil Ebadi, Majid Gheidi and Amir Kazempour 231-227 in the semifinal at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field.

The team will now face formidable Korea in the gold medal match. The hosts defeated Philippines 228-227 in another semifinal encounter.

It was heartbreak for India in the women's compound women's team event as the trio of Trisha Deb, Purvasha Shinde and Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost to favourites Chinese Taipei in the semifinal.

The Indian trio gave the Chinese Taipei side a run for its money before going down 224-226. The Indian eves, however, have a chance to finish on the podium as they take on Iran in the bronze medal match tomorrow.

The Indian squash contingent, meanwhile, was assured of its best ever showing by reaching the men's and women's team semifinals, ensuring medals in all four categories on offer.

The Indian women's team, including Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa, dispatched China 3-0 to top Pool B after the men cruised past Japan with an identical scoreline at the Yeorumul Squash Courts here.

While the women face hosts South Korea in the semifinals, the men will know about their semifinal opponents after their final league match against Malaysia later in the day. The winner of the match will top the group.

In any case, both Indian teams will pocket at least a bronze medal for the reaching the semifinals, just like they did in Guangzhou four years ago. India are also set to surpass their 2010 tally of three bronze, having won a bronze and silver through Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal, respectively.

However, India wasted chances galore in their 1-2 defeat against arch-rivals and defending champions Pakistan in a keenly-contested Pool B match of the men's hockey competition.

For Pakistan, Mohammed Umar Bhutta (38th minute) and Mohammed Waqas (54th minute) scored, while Nikkin Thimmaiah (53rd minute) netted the consolation goal.

On the badminton court, Saina sailed into the quarterfinals with a comfortable straight-game win while Kashyap advanced to the pre-quarters.

World number seven Saina thrashed Iran's Soraya Aghaeihajiagha (2-0) 21-7 21-6 in a women's singles round of 16 match at the Gyeyang Gymnasium. Seeded sixth, Saina would be would up against no. 2 seed Wang Yihan of China.

However, world number 10 Sindhu suffered a shocking 1-2 reverse to Manuputty Bellaetrix, ranked 34th, despite taking the first game. Kashyap made the men's singles pre-quarters by registering a straight-game win over Afghanistan's Iqbal Ahmad Shekib.

Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh (49kg) entered the prequarters after getting a walkover but Manoj Kumar (64kg) bowed out with an opening round loss on a mixed day for Indian boxers.

Indian tennis players Yuki Bhambri, Sanam Singh and Ankita Raina registered comfortable wins in their respective singles matches to sail into the pre-quarterfinals.

All the three Indians were hardly tested by their opponents as they registered straight set wins without breaking a sweat at the Yeorumul Tennis Courts.

However, there was disappointment elsewhere with Indian swimmers with none of the four Indians in fray -- Anshul Kothari Aaron D'Souza, Neil Contractor and Prathapan Nair -- making the finals of their respective events.

It was another dismal outing for Indian cyclists with Amarjit Singh and Amrit Singh finishing fifth in their respective repechage heats to be knocked out of the Men's Keirin event.

In sepaktakrow, the Indian men's team was thrashed 0-3 by hosts South Korea in their preliminary group A match.

Indian horse riders neither performed brilliantly nor disappointed totally in two days of team and individual eventing at the Asian Games and were in the middle of the small pack here today.

After the first session of dressage and cross country, the four-member squad stood 5th with 180.50 penalty points out of 7 teams but a medal looks remote tomorrow, the last day, when the event ends after the final competition - jumping of the horses.