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Analysis: Indian lifters shine on Day 1

October 05, 2010

It turned out to be a good start for India on Day One of the Delhi Commonwealth Games, as they opened their medals tally by winning four medals.

It was the weightlifters who provided plenty to cheer as they claimed two silver and two bronze medals.

A look at how the Indian athletes fared on the opening day of competition.

Lifters provide sparkle

Soniya Chanu won a silver in the women's weightlifting 48-kg category and Sukhen Dey bagged the same in the men's 56-kg event.

The bronze in the two events also went India's way -- to Sandhya Devi Rani  and Srinivasa Rao respectively.

Shuttlers crush Kenya

Saina Nehwal lived up to her top billing as the Indian badminton team crushed Kenya 5-0 in a Group D match of the mixed team event.

Chetan Anand started the rout; he crushed Victor Odera Munga 21-7, 21-13, followed by Saina routing Joseph Mercy Mwethya 21-11, 21-4.

Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas cruised through their doubles match, while Aparna Balana and Aswini Ponappa also had it easy in the women's doubles.

Jwala Gutta and V Diju completed the whitewash as they slammed Anna Njambi and Frederick Choube 21-8, 21-5 in a mere 11 minutes.

Tennis stars have it easy

The tennis team also made a bright start.

Leander Paes and Sania Mirza breezed through their mixed double first round match, trouncing St Lucia's Stacey Nykita Roheman and Alberton Richelieu 6-1, 6-0 in just 39 minutes.

Rohan Bopanna, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Poojashree Venkatesh also registered opening day victories in singles matches.

The only blot was the first round defeat of Bopanna and Nirupama Sanjeev in the mixed doubles, to top seeds Australian duo of Paul Hanley and Anastasia Rodionova.

Mixed start in table tennis

The Indian men's team got off to a winning start in table tennis, but their female counterparts had to bite the dust.

The Indian men's team, despite not playing current Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal, spanked Vanuatu 3-0 in their Group B match.

But the women's team failed to live up to expectations. They beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in their first match in Group D but were beaten 2-3 by New Zealand in their next round match.

Swimmers make history

The Indian swimmers made Commonwealth Games history; the men's team made it to the final of the 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay.

Vridhiwal Khade, Anshul Kothari, Arjun Jayaprakash and Aaron D'souza finished sixth in their preliminary round to help India break their jinx in Commonwealth Games.

But they failed to make waves in the final, where they finished sixth.

Badrinath Melkote and Shubha Chittaranjan qualified for the semi-finals of the men's 50m backstroke and women's 50m butterfly respectively.

Archers bang on target

The Indian recurve archers were in top form as they stole the honours in the opening day at the Yamuna Sports Complex.

Rahul Banerjee (679 points) and Jayanta Talukdar (676 points) claimed first and second place after the first two rounds.

In the women's event, Deepika Kumari (662 points) finished ahead of the experienced Dola Banerjee (658) to claim top spot in the women's recurve.

In the team event, India finished ahead of England with 1944 points.

Ghosal, Chinappa triumph

India's top squash players, Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa, cruised past their opponents to advance to the last 16 in the singles of the squash event.

Ghosal crushed Scotland's Lyall Paterson 11-6, 11-6, 11-7, while Chinappa beat Malaysia's Sharon Wee 11-1, 11-4, 8-11, 11-4.

In the other results of the day, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Siddharth Suchde went down in their second round matches, while in the women's Anwesha Reddy, Surbhi Mishra and Anaka Alankamony were also shown the door.

Earlier in the day, Dipika Pallikal was forced to miss the women's singles event because of fever.

Hockey: India eves held by Scotland

Jasjeet Handa's goal help India rally to hold Scotland 1-1 in their opening Pool A match in the women's hockey event at the Major Dhyanchand stadium.

Scotland shocked the Indians early as they scored as early as the third minute through Holly Gram. They looked the better of the two teams in the first half, but the breather saw India respond back in style as they created more chances.

Finally, India got the much-needed goal when Handa leveled the score after a brilliant one-two passing move with Ritu Rani.

Gymnasts disappoint

The Indian gymnastics disappointed as they finished a lowly sixth in the men's artistic gymnastics at the Indira Gandhi stadium.

The Indian team were hampered when Rohit Jaiswal and Partha Mondal suffered injuries, while Akhil Kumar and Mayank Srivastava also failed to rise to the occasion.

Australia won the gold with 259.050 points in the men's artistic team subdivision two competition on the Vault, while England, who led into the final rotation, finished with the silver medal with 256.750 points.

Canada bagged the bronze with 248.500 points.

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