India start with a 7-0 win over HK
Sandeep’s brace helps team maul weak opponents.
Sandeep Singh converted two penalty corners as India blanked Hong Kong 7-0 to make an impressive start in the Asian Games men's field hockey on Monday.
Singh scored both goals in the first half after Bharat Kumar had put India ahead in the second minute of the group B encounter at the Aoti hockey centre.
A goal from Sarvanjit Singh gave the Indians a 4-0 lead by half-time, which was built on after resumption through goals from Tushar Khandekar, Arjun Halappa and Shivendra Singh.
India, silver-medallists behind world champions Australia at last month's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, are hoping to win the 10-nation tournament and earn a direct entry to the 2012 London Olympics.
The eight-time Olympic champions missed the Beijing Games two years ago after failing to win a medal at the 2006 Doha Asiad.
India's Spanish coach Jose Brasa said the easy win helped his team get acclimatised to the tough playing conditions.
India next play Bangladesh on Wednesday, ahead of the high-voltage clash against Pakistan on Saturday.
Sasi keeps India hopes alive
Krishnan Sasikiran kept the Indian hopes alive in the chess event, while Suryasekar Ganguly, Dronavalli Harika and Tania Sachdev receded a bit on the penultimate day of competition, here on Monday.
Indian Grandmaster Sasikiran remained the lone unbeaten participant from the country as he continued his good show with two wins and a draw today, to sit at joint second on 5.5 points along with top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.
Sharath-Shamini in mixed pre-quarters
India's Sharath Kamal and Shamini Kumaresan beat the Vietnamese pair of Quang Linh Dinh and Thi Tam Luong 3-1 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the table tennis mixed doubles event.
However, the other Indian pair of Amalraj Anthony and Madhurika Patkar lost to Chih Yuan Chang and Yi Hua Huang of Chinese Taipei 0-3 to bow out at the Guangzhou Gymansium.
Khade loses out on bronze
Virdhawal Khade agonisingly lost the chance to become India's first medalist in swimming in nearly a quarter of a century when he missed the bronze medal narrowly in the men's 50m freestyle event.
The 19-year-old Khade finished just 0.03 seconds behind bronze winner Kishida Harada Rammaru of Japan after a superb effort that saw him clock 22.87 secs in the final, in which the gold medal winner Lu Zhi Wu came home in 22.37.
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