Star Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra clinched individual and team bronze medals in his last Asian Games while squash player Saurav Ghosal had to be content with a historic silver as India added five more medals to boost their tally to nine on the fourth day of competitions in Incheon, South Korea on Tuesday.
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.
Meanwhile, Wushu players delivered two bronze through Yumnam Sanathoi Devi and Narender Grewal after they lost their respective semi-final contests to cap off India's campaign in the sport on an impressive note.
With the addition of five more medals, India maintained their 13th position in the medals table with a tally of one gold, one silver and nine bronze. Powerhouse China continued to top the table, followed by hosts South Korea and Japan.
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.
Itt 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.
Apart from Bindra and his team's bronze-winning effort, there was disappointment for the other Indian shooters who were in action on Tuesday.
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The Indian men's hockey team continued their winning run as they thrashed minnows Oman 7-0 but were far from impressive in their performance.
Rupinderpal (18th, 19th min) successfully converted two penalty corners before limping off the field after scoring the second goal. The unbelievably off-colour Raghunath (39th, 60th min+) managed two goals via penalty stroke and penalty corner.
Akshdeep Singh (33rd), Ramandeep Singh (54th) and Danish Mujtaba (60th) were the other scorers.
The worrying factor for India will be ace drag-flicker Rupinderpal's injury before the crucial game against arch-rivals Pakistan.
In cycling, Indians continued to struggle as Deborah and K Vargheese finished 9th and 10th respectively in women's sprint qualifying.
Deborah and Vargheese clocked 12.118 and 12.897 with an average speed of 59.415 and 55.826, respectively to occupy the last two spots.
Ashish's accumulated score of 81.750 was way behind the total top score of Japan's Kamoto 87.950.
Meanwhile, Railways gymnast Rana (77.150) suffered due to a string of ordinary landings amongst the 23 gymnasts in the fray.
Indian swimmers continued to struggle at the Asian Games with Sajan Prakash and Saurabh Sangvekar finishing fourth and seventh respectively in their men's 400 metre freestyle heats and Anshul Kothari ending at the sixth spot in 50m freestyle.
Weightlifters also expectedly failed to make a mark Ravi Kumar and Punam Yadav coming up with listless performances.
Silver medallist at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Ravi Kumar lifted a total of 313kg after an effort of 141kg in snatch and 172kg in clean and jerk to finish second in Group B. Satish Sivalingam, whose name was there in the initial start list, did not take part due to illness.
In women's 63kg division, Punam, who had bagged a bronze medal at CWG, finished a lowly seventh in the field of nine lifters.
Jitu Rai gives India first gold
World No.5 Jitu Rai emerged champion in the men's 50 metre pistol event to give India its first gold medal from the 17th Asian Games at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range.
It was India's second medal of the day from the shooting ranges. Shweta Chaudhry had won the bronze, the first medal for India from Incheon, in the 10m air pistol event earlier in the day.
Rai, who won the World Championship silver medal earlier this month to book the Olympic berth, shot a total of 186.2 in what was a rollercoaster final round. He had fired 559 in the qualification round to finish seventh and make the cut for the finals.
