Asian Games: Indians disappoint in taekwondo

Maria Margerette Regi (right)

Incheon, Oct 3 (IANS)

India's Maria Margerette Regi and Shaloo Raikwar lost their respective women's quarter-finals taekwondo bouts in the 17th Asian Games at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium on Friday.

While Regi (+73kg) was thrashed 1-15 by China's Li Donghua, Raikwar put up a strong fight against Kuwait's Alfahad Abrar, who registered a 3-3 win by superiority.

First up, Regi, after a 1-1 tie at the end of the first round, failed to contain Donghua's aggression and the Chinese earned seven points each in the next two rounds to march into the semi-final.

In the other match, Raikwar fought valiantly against Alfahad. Both athletes took time to measure each other's strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the first two rounds, the score was 1-0 in favour of the Kuwait athlete.

The third round saw aggression from both the athletes as Alfahad's first kick earned her two points while Raikwar came up with a sharp kick to bag three points.

However, neither of them managed a point in the fourth and final round which forced the judges to declare Alfahad as the winner on superiority.