SPORTS

Shooters, wrestlers swell India's medal haul

By Harish Kotian
October 06, 2010 22:33 IST

India's shooters and wrestlers continued their good showing to boost India's gold medals tally on Day 3 of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, in Delhi, on Wednesday.

The hosts added six more gold to their tally, with shooters contributing to three of those. They also won four silver and two bronze medals to stay second in the standings, behind Australia.

Anisa Sayyed, Gagan Narang and Omkar Singh finished top in their respective events as India won three straight gold medals in shooting.

Wrestler Rajender Kumar clinched a gold medal in the Greco-Roman 55kg category, while Renu Bala Chanu and Ravi Kumar also emerged triumphant in the weightlifting competition to make it a successful day at the Games.

A look at India's performance on Day 3:

The shooting stars

Anisa Sayyed, Gagan Narang and Omkar Singh continued their good run. Sayyed won the gold medal in the women's 25 metre pistol event, while compatriot Rahi Sarnobat bagged the silver.

Gagan Narang pipped compatriot and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra to win the gold medal and successfully defend his 10 metres Air Rifle men title.

Narang topped the final round, as he shot a best round of 103.6 after a perfect 600 in the qualifying rounds, for a personal best and Commonwealth Games record of 703.6.

Omkar bagged the third straight gold medal for India in the shooting range when he won the men's 50 metres Pistol final.

He finished first with a tally of 623, ahead of Singapore's duo Bin Gai (621) and Swee Hon Lee (616.3).

Wrestlers continue golden run

The wrestlers continued to shine at the Games, with Rajender Kumar leading the way with a gold medal in the in the Greco-Roman.

Manoj Kumar took the silver in the 84 kg category, while Sunil Kumar and Dharmender Dalal clinched a bronze medal each.

Rajender overpowered Pakistan's Azhar Hussain 11-0 in a one-sided final of the 55kg category to fetch the gold, while Sunil overpowered Hawthorn of Wales in his 66kg bronze medal play-off bout.

Dharmender won bronze in the 120 kg category.

Chanu bags first gold in lifting

Renu Bala Chanu gave India its first gold medal in weightlifting after finishing on top in women's 58-kg category at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Sports Complex.

Chanu got off to a smashing start before ending the snatch event with a highest lift of 90 kgs that saw her set a new Commonwealth Games record.

Ravi Kumar also smashed his way to gold, breaking the Games record in the men's weightlifting 69-kg category with a total lift of 321kgs.

Kumar started off in cracking fashion with a record lift of 146 kgs in the Snatch event and followed it up with another record lift of 175 kgs in the clean and jerk.

Sania, Somdev in quarters

Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza stormed into the quarter-finals after scoring easy victories but Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the men's singles.

Top seed Somdev crushed Sri Lanka's Amresh Jayawickreme 6-0, 6-1 in a one-sided contest, while Sania crushed Cook Island's Brittany Teei 6-0, 6-2 in the second round match.

Bopanna went down fighting 2-6, 6-7(5) to Australian Peter Luczak in the second round of the men's singles at the R K Khanna Tennis stadium.

Archers bang on target

It was a good day for the Indian archery team as both the men's and women's teams advanced to the semi-finals of the recurve and compound sections.

India beat Sri Lanka 213-205 in the men's quarter-final, while the women's team got a bye into the semi-finals in the six-team competition.

The Indian men's team also made it to the last four of the compound section when Ritul Chatterjee, Ch Jignas and C Srither, defeated New Zealand 226-225 after their 224-219 victory over Trinidad & Tobago.

The women's side, comprising Bheigyabati Chanu, Jhano Hansdah and Gagandeep Kaur, scored a 227-220 victory over Australia in their quarter-final match.

Bhagwan off to a smashing start

Jai Bhagwan got off to a smashing start to enter the pre-quarter-finals with an easy victory over Nauru's Colan Caleb in the 60-kg category.

Bhagwan, who got a bye in the first round, was in control right from the start and scored an easy 11-1 victory.

Asian Boxing Championships silver medalist Bhagwan will play Tanzania's Nasser Mafuru in his next bout.

Swimmer Karmakar creates history

Prasanta Karmakar created history as he became the first Indian para-swimmer to win a swimming medal, at the Delhi Games at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Acquatics Complex.

Karmakar, who clocked 27.48 seconds, finished behind England's Simon Miller and Australian Matthew Cowdrey, to claim bronze in the 50m freestyle event.

Rehan Poncha, Rohit Havaldar, Madar Divase and Aaron D'Souza clocked 7 minutes 49.20 seconds to grab the eighth position in the preliminaries and qualify for the final.

Virdhawal Khade qualified for the semi-finals of the 100m freestyle after finishing 13th and then made it to 50m butterfly final after finishing seventh in the qualifications. Pooja Alva made it to the semi-finals in the women's 100m butterfly after finishing 15th.

But Richa Mishra failed to make the cut in the women's 800m freestyle.

India cruise into badminton team event quarters

India crushed Wales 5-0 to storm into the quarter-finals of the mixed badminton team event at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

Chetan Anand outclassed Lewis Martyn 21-12, 21-16 and was followed by debutant Aditi Mutakar getting the better of Turner Carissa 21-13, 21-8.

Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar were made to work hard for their 21-17, 21-14 victory over Phillips James and Morgan Joe in the men's doubles.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Aparna Balan then teamed up to beat Turner Carissa and Harvey Caroline 21-11, 21-13 in the women's doubles.

In the mixed doubles, Jwala Gutta and V Diju showed their class as they beat Lewis Martyn and Thomas Sarah 21-8, 21-5 to complete a 5-0 clean sweep.

Indian eves suffer in hockey

The Indian women's hockey team suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of defending champions Australia in the Pool A match at the Major Dhyanchand National Hockey stadium.

Shelly Liddelow gave Australia the lead in the 11th minute, which was doubled by Ashleigh Nelson in the 59th minute. Rani Rampal gave the hosts some hope with a late goal in the 69th minute but the Aussies held on for victory.

In their first match, India were held to a 1-1 draw by Scotland.

Indians continue to suffer in netball

The Indian women's team went down to Malawi 26-82 for their second successive defeat in the netball event at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex.

Mary and Mwayi were at their attacking best as they scored 22 and 24 goals respectively to make a major contribution for the visitors.

This was India's second defeat in a row in the tournament following their loss to Australia in the opening match of the event.

Gynast Ashish Kumar disappoints

Ashish Kumar failed to live upto expectations as he finished eighth in the all-round final of the individual artistic gymnastics competition.

Kumar registered a total of 81.800 points in the event which was won by England's Luke Folwell (85.550), while Reiss Beckford (85.450) took the silver and Australia's Joshua Jefferis took the bronze with 84.750 points.

Women paddlers enter semis, men in quarters

The fourth seed Indian women's team stormed into the semi-final of the table tennis team competition by beating third seed Australia 3-1 at the Yamuna Sports Complex.

Kumaresan Shamini won two matches, while reigning National champion Poulomi Ghatak won one to help the team enter final-four stage.

Former India number one, Mouma Das lost a match but that could not stop the Melbourne edition's bronze medallists from proceeding to the semi-finals.

The women's side had earlier qualified for final-eight stage from Group D after overcoming Sri Lanka and Ghana.

However, they lost to New Zealand in the group stage.

Meanwhile, title holders the Indian men's team also entered the quarter-finals from Group B after getting a bye from Dominica.

Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal and his teammates have already beaten Guyana and Vanuatu in the other group league matches.

The Indian men are seeded second, after Singapore.

Harish Kotian in Delhi

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