Phuttharaksa Nikree, left, and Ruthtanaphol Theppibal show their bronze medals from the women’s and men’s lightweight single sculls, respectively.

Praput Chaithanakun and Udon Khaimuk reaped the fourth gold medal for the Kingdom in the Asian Games yesterday, overcoming a third-frame lapse to win the men's English Billiard Doubles at the al-Sadd Multi-Purpose Hall.

The pair won the first two frames 101-26 and 102-95 against Burma's Kyaw Oo and Aung San Oo but collapsed in the third 35-100 before bouncing back to land the fourth frame 101-63.

Thailand have so far collected four gold medals from the women's 50m prone rifle team, weightlifter Pawina Thongsuk and the men's sepak trakaw team. But the country has been nowhere near the set target of 15-17 gold.

In the badminton quarter-finals at the Aspire Hall, second-seeded Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thungthongkham kept the country's hopes for more medals alive yesterday. The former Asian champions survived a challenge from Lee Yong Dae and Hwang Yu Mi to power past the Korean fifth seeds 22-20 21-18.

The victory meant the Thai duo are already in the semi-finals. At Busan, the squad returned with two silver and a bronze.

Saralee teamed up with Khunakorn Suddhisodhi to win the silver in the mixed doubles event.

Earlier, Sudket and Phattapol Ngernsrisuk lost the men's doubles match against current world champions and top seeds Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun 9-21 21-23.

Kunchala Voravichitchaikul and Duanganong Aroonkesorn went down to Korean third seeds Lee Kyung Won and Lee Hyo Jung, the defending champions, 21-23 18-21 in the women's doubles event.

Also falling in the quarter-finals  were Songphon Anukritayawan and Nattaphon Nakthong, losing 14-21 9-21 to Japanese Keita Masuda and Tadashi Ohtsuka, while Saralee and regular partner Sathinee Junkrajangwong played a thriller in the match against Indonesians Lita Nurlita and Vita Marissa before going down 20-22 12-21.

Meanwhile, the athletics programme got underway yesterday with Han Yucheng of China shrugging off the wet conditions to win the first athletics gold medal of the games in the 20-kilometre walk.

China's Liu Hong won the women's walk in 1:32:19, ahead of Ryoko Sakakura of Japan and He Dan of China. 

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

The Nation

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