Asian Games: Weightlifters, judokas off to disappointing start in Incheon
Incheon: Judoka Thoudam Kalpana Devi missed out on a bronze after losing her repechage bout against Kazakhstan's Lenariya Mingazova in the 52 kg category as it was a disappointing day for the Indian team on the mat at the 18th Asian Games here on Saturday.
After a high at the Commonwealth Games, the Indian judokas were brought back to earth by some of the much superior Asian opponents.
Save Kalpana, who reached the bronze medal (repechage) bout, the two other Indians Navdeep Chana (men's 60 kg) and Likmabam Sushila Devi (women's 48 kg) were eliminated in the earlier rounds.
Kalpana won her pre-quarter-final match against Devika Khadka of Nepal before losing out to Ma Yingnan of China, who eventually reached the finals.
Getting a chance for repechage bout, Kalpana got past Ju Pie Lien of Chinese Taipei to set up a bronze medal bout with the Kazakh judoka. However ger opponent proved to be strong for her as she got an 'Ippon' on her way to bronze medal.
Among the others, Chana, a silver medallist at the recently concluded Glasgow Asian Games, lost his 60 kg pre-quarterfinal bout against Boldbaatar Ganbat of Mongolia after having beaten Abdulla Almaraghy of Kuwait in the first round.
L Sushila Devi beat Uzbekistan's Mukkadas Kubeeva in the pre quarter-final before losing to Asian champion and world no 5 Emi Yamagishi of Japan as the champion judoka got an 'Ippon'.
With Yamagishi reaching the final, Sushila got a a chance in the first round repechage Wu Shugen of China.
The only Indian judoka left in the fray is Rajwinder Kaur in the 75 kg category.
Indian weightlifters fail to shine on day one:
India started their weightlifting campaign on a dismal note as all three of them who took the field on Saturday finished in the bottom half of the table in their respective weight categories in both men's and women's divisions at the Asian Games here.
In Women's 48kg category, Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu and Saikhom Mirabai Chanu -- the gold and silver medallist of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games -- came a cropper by finishing tenth and ninth respectively in a field of 13 weightlifters.
Another Commonwealth gold medallist Sukhen Dey, meanwhile, finished a lowly 12th in men's 56kg category out of 14 lifters.
Placed in Group B of men's 56kg, where six lifters competed, Sukhen ended at fifth place with a total of 242kg (106+136).
Mirabai lifted a total of 75kg in snatch, and 96kg in clean and jerk for an overall effort of 171kg. Sanjita could lift only a total of 166kg (73+93).
Kazakhstan's Margarita Yelisseyeva ran away with the gold in women's 48kg category with an effort 194kg (88+106), while Sri Wahyuni Agustiani of Indonesia settled for a silver with a lift of 187kg (80+107) and Togoeva Mahliyo of Uzbekistan bagged a bronze with a total of 187 (81+106).
In men's 56kg, North Korea's Om Yun Chol won the gold with a total of 298kg, which is now the new Asian Games record. He lifted 128kg in snatch before a world record 170kg effort in clean and jerk.
Thach Kim Tua of Vietnam (total of 294kg) pocketed a silver and China's Wu Jingbiao (288kg) finished with a bronze.
