Ghosal takes historic silver; Bindra, wushu players bag bronze

Star Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra brought the curtains down on his competitive career with two bronze medals while Saurav Ghosal had to be content with a historic squash silver as India maintained 13th position after the fourth day of competitions at the 17th Asian Games here today.
While Bindra was the star performer as he picked up the individual as well as team bronze in the men's 10m air rifle event, Ghosal narrowly missed out on a coveted yellow metal on what turned out to be a mixed day for the Indian contingent.
Yumnam Sanathoi Devi and Narender Grewal also brought laurels for the country by bagging a bronze each in wushu competition.

With the addition of five more medals, India held on to their 13th position on the medals table with a tally of one gold, one silver and nine bronze. Powerhouse China continued to top the table with 81 (40-21-20), followed by hosts South Korea 58 (18-19-21) and Japan 60 (16-22-22).
Bindra, who had announced that he will quit competitive shooting after the multi-sporting event, broke his Asian Games jinx by clinching his first individual medal after bagging a medal of the same hue in team event along with Sanjeev Rajput and Ravi Kumar at the Gyeonggido Shooting Range.
The Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist had a fine sequence of scores barring 9.9 and 9.6 on his 6th and 12th shots, and had to be content with the bronze medal after shooting 10.6 and 10.7 in his last two shots.

It was heartbreak for Ghosal, Asian number one and tournament top seed, as he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory after squandering a commanding 2-0 lead against Abdullah Al Muzayen in the men's singles squash final.

The Indian world no 16 led his 5-8 seeded Kuwaiti rival 12-10, 11-2 when Abdullah came up a stunning turnaround to turn the tables on Ghosal for the gold.
Abdullah, ranked 46th in the world, produced top drawer stuff when he was down and out for the count to manage a 10-12, 2-11, 14-12, 11-8, 11-9 win that stunned the Indian camp, and the player especially, into deep despair, notwithstanding that it was country's first ever silver from the squash courts in Games history.

Wushu players contributed to India's medal kitty by bringing two bronze before ending their campaign.
Sanathoi lost to Zhang Luan of China in women's Sanda 52kg category semifinals, while Grewal was defeated by Jean Claude Saclag of Philippines in men's Sanda 60kg semifinals. Both the Indians went down in identical 0-2 'Win by Round' verdicts.