Saurav Ghosal clinched a silver medal for India in the men's singles squash event at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea on Tuesday, after losing to Abdullah Al Muzayen of Kuwait in the final.
The summit clash was a five-game thriller, with Ghosal shooting into the lead, by winning two early games. However, Al Muzayen came back strongly from the third game, to win the match 10-12, 2-11, 14-12, 11-8, 11-9.
The 28-year-old Kolkata boy, who had the opportunity to make history by winning the first ever Asian Games gold medal for India in squash, squandered a 2-0 lead. It all started to go wrong for Ghosal in the third game, where Al Muzayen raced into a 6-3 lead, later going on to win it 14-12, after a close fight.
This seemed to have buoyed the Kuwaiti a bit, as he comprehensively beat his Indian counterpart in the remaining two games, to complete a remarkable comeback win.
Although Ghosal could not win the gold medal, his name will go down in the country's squash history, as this is the first time India have won an Asian Games silver medal, not only in squash, but also in any raquet sport.
Bindra Helps India Win 10m Air Rifle Team and Individual Bronze
Meanwhile, Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra shot bronze medals in the men's 10m air rifle individual and team events of the Asian Games 2014.
First, the Indian men's 10m air rifle team of Ravi Kumar, Sanjeev Rajput and Bindra finished third in the team event to win yet another bronze medal for their country. India (1863) finished third in the event, behind gold medallists China (1886.4) and silver medallists South Korea (1867.6).
Ravi Kumar and Sanjeev Rajput scored 618.9 and 618.7, respectively, while Bindra headed the pack, scoring 625.4. Bindra started the finals badly, but later went on to make a strong comeback, scoring the highest amongst the three Indians.
After that, Bindra went into the men's 10m air rifle individual event, shooting down another bronze medal, to take India's total medal's tally to eight.
"I am very excited to win these two medals," Bindra was quoted as saying by the Times of India. "To do well alongside such world-class shooters is always pleasing."
The Uttarakhand-born lad has established himself as the top shooter in the 10m air rifle category in India, by winning gold medals at the Olympics (2008), World Shooting Championships (2006) and at the Commonwealth Games (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014).
Earlier, on Monday, Bindra had announced that today would be his last day as a professional shooter. However, he did say that he would try to compete in certain shooting tournaments.
Tomorrow will mark the end of my professional shooting life ! I will however still shoot , compete as a hobby shooter training twice a week.
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) September 22, 2014
"Tomorrow will mark the end of my professional shooting life! I will however still shoot, compete as a hobby shooter training twice a week," said the ace Indian shooter on his Twitter account. "And yes I will still try to be at Rio and my bio is now most appropriate."
And yes I will still try to be at rio and my bio is now most appropriate ! Great times and am sure there will be a few more ! — Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) September 22, 2014
This means that this was Bindra's last appearance at the Asian Games. Although he says that his bio is complete, he has not won a gold medal at the Asiad, where his best finish was in Guangzhou 2010, where he won the silver medal.
