CWG: India retains second spot with 14 Gold, 11 Silver, 9 Bronze

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CWG: India looks to win more Gold on Day 5

New Delhi, Oct 8: The action will hot up on Day 5 of the Commonwealth Games as a total of 43 gold medals will be up for grabs in various disciplines.

India’s star on Day 4 with 2 gold medals Gurpreet Singh has a chance to increase his tally to 4 as he will compete in the 10m Air Pistol Men singles and 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol Men events. He can expect tough competition from compatriots and gold medal winners Vijay Kumar and Omkar Singh.

 

The women’s archery team in the recurve competition will battle to make it to the finals and win more medals for the hosts as the compound team did on Thursday.

Swimming has 10 medals at stake and although India has not been making any splashes in the pool, with seven semi-finalists, there is still something to look forward to and hope.

In boxing too, Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh will be in action along with Jai Bhagwan as they will try and maintain the Indian pugilists’ perfect start to the competition.

The Indian women’s hockey team will take on minnows Trinidad & Tobago while squash will see the likes of Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa pit their wits against tough competitors.

GOLDS AT STAKE: Swimming (11) Archery (2) Athletics (8) Badminton (1) Cycling (3) Gymnastics (5) Shooting (5) Squash (2) Table-tennis (1), Weightlifting (2), Wrestling (3)

Following is Tuesday’s schedule of Indian participation in the Commonwealth Games here.


New Delhi, October 7, 2010: India scooped up a bagful of three gold and as many silver and bronze medals to firmly remain in second spot behind leaders Australia in the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

 

The three gold medals were garnered by the 25m and 10m men pistoliers with Gurpreet Singh being the common factor in both these pairs while Geeta grabbed the first gold in women’s wrestling.

Gurpreet joined hands with Vijay Kumar to rake in the gold medal in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (pairs) event before combining well with Omkar Singh to clinch the 10m air pistol (pairs) title to become a double gold winner.

Medals Tally
 

 

The shooting gold medals provided by the men’s pistol wielders took the country’s overall gold tally from the Dr Karni Singh range to 14, showing how much the marksmen and women have contributed in keeping India’s flag flying high.

Grappler Geeta trounced her rival Emily Bensted of Australia in the 55 kg category final. She entered the gold medal round by defeating Lovina Odohi Edward of Nigeria, but her teammate — 63kg grappler Suman Kundu — lost in the semi-finals.

Men’s double trap shooting ace Ronjon Sondhi got a silver medal along with the men’s archery compound team and women’s 48kg freestyle grappler Nirmala Devi.

The three bronze medals came in archery (women’s team compound event), 77kg weightlifter Sudhir Kumar and Ashish Kumar, in men’s gymnastics (floor exercise).

The day’s haul of eight medals boosted India’s overall tally to 14-11-8 and on course to their pre-Games target of achieving the runner-up spot behind overwhelming favourites Australia.

Australia were way ahead of the rest with 27-16-14 while England lagged behind in third place (8-15-10).

 

India struck gold early on the fourth day when marksmen Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh clinched the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (pairs) event before the men’s and women’s archery teams added to the medal tally with a silver and a bronze.

Kumar and Gurpreet together fired 1162 to bag the top prize in the pistol event ahead of Malaysia’s Amir Hasan Hasli Izwan and Adzha Hafiz (1142) and Australian bronze medal winning duo of Bruce Quick and David Chapman (1125).

The Indian men’s compound team lost to England by two points (229-231) in the gold medal-deciding match while the women defeated Malaysia by four points (223-219) in the corresponding event’s bronze play-off tie. These were the first two medals for the country from the archery range.

The other two bronze medals were claimed by men’s 77kg weightlifter Sudhir Kumar and gymnast Ashish Kumar, an unexpected one, in the floor exercise.

Indian challenge continued to remain strong in table tennis, tennis and badminton.

The women’s team made it to the final of the table tennis championship by defeating England in the semi finals.

Men’s tennis top seed Somdev Devvarman inched closer to a medal in the singles with a 6-3 6-4 win over sixth seed Rubin Statham of New Zealand.

Ace Indian shuttlers Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal notched up contrasting wins as India thrashed Canada 3-0 to set up a semifinal clash with England in the mixed badminton team event.

Mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju just took 19 minutes to make short work of NG Toby and Gao Grace 21-8 21-12 in the first match of the day to give India a 1-0 lead.

Saina then sealed the issue in India’s favour with a 21-16 21-13 victory over her one-time doubles partner Anna Rice in the women’s singles.

Swimming pool woes

But glitches continued to dog the Games with the organisers confronted with the problem of several swimmers, mostly from the England contingent, complaining of pool-related sickness.

Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell and Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi promised an inquiry and a solution by Thursday.

“We are ensuring that the water quality is tested. We don’t have specific reports about illnes. We must find this out immediately. We have to deal with it. It needs some urgency,” Mr. Fennell said, while responding to a query whether they would postpone the day’s finals.

Asked whether water at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Acquatics Complex was contaminated, Mr. Fennell said: “Let’s not speculate. These are being investigated, though we are yet to get specific reports from swimming.”

According to reports, almost two thirds of the British swimming squad have been hit hard by a “Delhi belly”, with leading English swimmer Francesca Halsall falling ill during an event that she was tipped to win.

The Aussies are not spared either with a dozen swimmers including several international stars have fallen ill after stomach bug with the water at the Acquatics Complex being blamed.

Courtesy: The Hindu