Indians fail to impress in taekwondo

From Our Correspondent

SHILLONG, Feb 14: Indians had a disappointing day in the Taekwondo discipline of the South Asian Games today.

 In the Men under 58 kg category, India maged to grab the silver when Gajendra Parihar beat Sunil Poudel of Nepal.

 In this category, C.S. Liyange of Sri Lanka also maged to get the bronze.

 Meanwhile, in the Men under 74 kg category, India had to be content with Silver as Manu George could not thwart the blows from Afghanistan’s M. Sharif Muradi who took away the Gold Medal and left India with a Silver.

 Bronze Medals went to Ngawang Yonten of Bhutan and N. Shrestha of Nepal.

 In the men over 87 kg category Asim Ijaz of Pakistan Gold thrashed  Pium  Sanjeewa of Sri  Lanka to grab the Gold Medal leaving the lkatter with Silver, while the Bronze Medals were taken by  Md. M. Rahaman of Bangladesh and Biju  Pradhan of Bhutan.

 In the Women under 49 kg category the gold medal was stched by India as Purva Dixit maged to thrash YK Chaulagain of Nepal leaving her with silver while Prova Chakma of Bangladesh and Ayesha Noor of Pakistan had to content with the bronze medal.

In the Women under 57 kg category, Somaen Ghuzami of Afghanistan grabbed the Gold Medal by beating Gyani Chura of Nepal 10 – 7 points.

And elated with first gold

Being the first to clinch the Gold Medal for India in the Taekwondo Discipline at the 12th South Asian Games being held at the Neigrihm’s  Indoor Stadium, P And, the under-87 kg fighter said he was very happy with the outcome.

And, who bagged gold medal in the last South Asian Games also said, “I am lucky that I could maintain my performance and I hope that I will be able to do the same in the future.”

Stating that his opponent was stronger than him, Annd said that he is very happy to be able to defeat the Afghanistan.

“The fact that I gave CT Serathne of Sri Lanka a knockout in my first fight gave me a boost in my confidence. Even though spectators do not seem to enjoy the game much but when they bang and cheered, it gave me much support and confidence,” Annd further said.

However, Indian Coach Jagit Singh expressed his unhappiness over the way the game between Afghanistan and India was judged, particularly in this category.

“I am not happy at all with the judges’ decision to pelize Abrar when Razaei fell down, even then Abrar was performing very well,” Singh said.

Also praising veen for his performance, Singh said, “This is his first Intertiol Tourment, against the two-time Olympic Medalist (Rohullah Nikpa) and veen did extremely well.”

The Indian Coach added, “Winning and losing is another thing but their performances was extremely good.”