Images: India rout hapless Bangladesh in hockey

Penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh pumped in four goals as India swamped Bangladesh 9-0 to notch up their second straight victory in Group B men's league of the Asian Games hockey competition at the Aoti field in Guangzhou.

Two-time champions India, who opened their campaign to regain the gold they last won in 1998 and qualify for the 2012 Olympics with a facile 7-0 victory over Hong Kong, led 3-0 at half time before upping the pace in the second half and pumping in six more goals to complete the rout.

The Rajpal Singh-led team warmed up nicely for the much-awaited clash with arch-foes Pakistan on November 20.

The took some time to find their bearing in the first half before scoring their 17th victory in 18 meetings against their South Asian rivals and the fifth in as many attempts in the Asiad.

Tushar Khandekar, who combined very well up front with skipper Rajpal, Arjun Halappa and Shivendra Singh, opened the floodgates in the second minute and then found the mark again in the 39th minute.

Sandeep Singh, who was very effective in his penalty corner tries, scored the second goal in the 13th minute, and then fired home thrice more with hits off penalty corners in the 47th, 63rd and 66th minutes for India's seventh and eighth goals before Dharamvir Singh completed the tally a minute from the end.

Prodigal India missed chances galore, got a goal overturned at the fag end before going down by a solitary first half penalty corner goal against South Korea in the Asian Games women's hockey competition.

India, who went into the match with a victory over Malaysia and a defeat against Japan under their belt, dominated the entire second half after conceding an early goal to the Koreans but failure to apply the finishing touch, which cost them the match and precious points.

To their chagrin, the Indian women also saw their last-gasp goal from captain Surinder Kaur being overturned by umpire Moyano Sanchez of Argentina, who first signalled a goal, but conferred with other umpire Chen Hong of China after the Koreans protested and then overturned her own verdict.

The defeat, eighth against the Koreans since women's hockey made its Asian Games debut in 1982, has virtually ended India's hopes of a gold or a silver medal.

But the Indian women, who lost 3-5 to the Koreans when they met previously in the Asian Champions Challenge in the latter's backyard, remain in the hunt for the bronze if they finish the round-robin league third or fourth as there is a play-off for the medal between the 3rd and 4th league finishers.

Indian women suffered a 2-20 thrashing at the hands of Uzbekistan in their last round-robin league match to finish fourth in the water polo competition in the Asian Games.

India lost 1-5, 0-5, 0-5, 1-5 in the four quarters to round off their campaign without a single win in the four-team competition.

China won gold after defeating Kazakhstan 13-5 (4-1, 3-2, 1-1, 5-1) in their last league match. The silver and bronze went to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan respectively.

India could convert just two out of 30 attempts at the opposition goal while Uzbekistan scored 20 from the 45 shots.

For India, Shubhangi Bhoite and Varshini Gubbi scored in the first and fourth quarters.

After ending India's 24-year-old medal drought in the pool in Asian Games, teen swimming sensation Virdhawal Khade topped his 100m freestyle heats but the effort was not good enough to fetch a place in the final of the event.

Khade, who clinched a 50m butterfly bronze on Tuesday to become the first Indian swimmer in 24 years to clinch an Asian Games medal, clocked 51.25sec to top the 100m freestyle heats today but the eventual eight qualifiers returned timings of under 51 seconds.

The 19-year-old Indian's effort was not even his personal best in this event which stands at 49.47sec, clocked at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008.

The other Indian in the event, Aaron Agnel Dsouza finished second behind Khade by clocking 52.71sec.

In the men's 200m individual medley, Rehan Poncha failed to qualify for the final after finishing sixth in the heats with a timing of 2:08.55sec.

India's Sandhyarani Devi had to be content with a silver medal in the Asian Games wushu competition after losing to defending champion Khadijeh Azadpour of Iran in the final of the women's 60 kg class at the Nansha Gymnasium in Guangzhou.

Sandhyarani, who was handicapped by a leg injury which she picked up in her semi-final win against Paloy Barckkham of Laos, lost 0-2 to the Iranian to fetch India's second medal in the sport after Bimoljit Singh's bronze on Tuesday.

"I could not raise my leg which was stiff following the injury sustained in the semi-finals. I was trying to throw her down with my arms but could not accomplish that too. I was targeting the gold but could not perform to potential because of the injury," said the 27-year-old Manipur, who won a bronze in the 2008 Asian Championship in Macau.

The CRPF employee said she had to move up the weight class for the Games from 56 to 60 kg because there was no competition in her original weight category.

India's disappointing show at the weightlifting competition in the Asian Games continued with Monika Devi and Chandrakanta Mali finishing seventh and 10th respectively in their events.

Monika, who returned to her pet 69kg weight category after winning a bronze in 75kg in the Commonwealth Games last month, lifted a disappointing 212kg (95+117) to finish seventh in an eight-lifter field.

Liu Chunhong of China won gold with a total lift of 242kg (110+132) while the silver and the bronze went to Indonesia's Sinta Darmariani and Chinese Taipei's Wang Ya Jhen with efforts of 238kg (101+137) and 233kg (100+133) respectively.

Mali, on the other hand, lifted 309kg (138+171) to finish 10th in the men's 85kg category in 13-lifter field. He had lifted 325kg to finish fourth in the Commonwealth Games last month.

Lu Yong of China won the gold with a total lift of 376kg (173+203) while Uzbekistan's Chashemov Mansurbek and South Korea's Kim Kwang Hoon won the silver and the bronze with efforts of 372kg (172+200) and 369kg (160+209) respectively.