India continued their dominance on the third day of the Commonwealth Youth Games on Tuesday and consolidated their position atop the standings, taking their medals tally to seven golds, five silver and four bronze.
- Images from Day 3
England closely follow the hosts with six golds, one silver and two bronze.
India bagged four golds, four silvers and four bronze at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi on Tuesday to add to their Mondays tally of three golds and one silver.
Meanwhile in girls' badminton event, Beijing quarter-finalist Saina Nehwal eased past Deborah Godfrey of South Africa to 21-7 21-4 to storm into the pre-quarterfinals, while national champion Guru Sai Dutt beat Joel Debel of Seychelles 21-04 21-02 to move into third round.
Not considered as India's forte, athletics however earned India a gold through Maharashtra's Dheeraj Mishra who leapt 15.42m to emerge on top in the triple jump.
England's Benjamin Williams (15.41m) finished second, while Boipelo Molahatlhego of South Africa secured the bronze with a distance of 15.20m. Indians also bagged two silver and three bronze medals in athletics.
Though the hosts missed a gold in the men's hammer-throw which was topped by Peter Smith of England with a distance of 68.38m, Indian duo of Narayan Chandrodaya (68.38m) and Ejaj Ahmed (64.97m) took the silver and bronze respectively.
The other silver came from Gayathri Govindharaj, who with a timing of 14.00s finished second in 100m hurdles. Kierre Beckles (Barbados) and Australia's Brianna Beahan took the gold and bronze respectively.
The other two bronze medals came through Jasdeep Singh (shot put) and Poonam Rani (women's javelin).
Meanwhile, India shooters continued to shine for the second day in succession with Hyderabad's Kynan Darius Chenai bagging a gold in the boys trap event and Ankush Bharadwaj clinching his second medal, a bronze in 10m Air Pistol event.
Mistake-ridden Darius, however, had a nervous final round where he shot 17, while the eventual bronze medalist Michael McNabb of Australia shot 19. But his earlier rounds scores of 111 was enough for the Hyderabad sharp shooter to finish on top with 128.
Having shot a poor 106 in the earlier rounds, Australian McNabb's splendid comeback in the final round took his tally to 106 and thus a bronze.
Malta's Ryan Bugeja, who shot on par with the Indian with the final round score of 17, had to settle for the silver medal after finishing one point shy of Darius.
Monday's gold medalist in 50m pistol event, Bhardwaj added a bronze to his tally after firing 94.9 in the final round to finish with a total of 645.9.
Gold went to James Hendry Matthews of Canada with a final score of 96.1 and a total of 653.1. Singapore's Chen Christopher finished with the silver with a total score of 650.7 and in the final he shot 95.7.
Loss of concentration due to a lighting problem cost Rushad Damania of India a medal, who missed the bronze by a margin of less than two points in the boys 50m Bad light forced Rushad to change his place and he shot 97.3 in the final to take his total to 679.3.
But Rory McAlpine of Scotland with a final round score of 99.4 took his tally to 681.4 en route to a silver, while James Huckle took the gold with 687.6.
India had a poor fifth place finish in the girls 50m rifle prone event with Aparajita Tivary totalling 579. Kay Copland (Scotland) clinched the gold with 585, while Nurfarah Afiqah of Malaysia took the silver totalling 582.
Sheree Cox of England had to contend with the bronze, finishing one point adrift of the Malaysian.
Monday saw shooting earn two gold for India with Bhardwaj emerging winner in a two-way race in the 50m pistol and Rahi Sarnobat in the girls 25m pistol.
Taking advantage of the thin participation, India also bagged two gold medals in wrestling event.
Ajit Patil opened the medal account in wrestling for the hosts when he emerged on top in the 39- 42kg category which saw representation from four countries.
In his first round bout, the Kolhapur lad beat Pakistan's Salamat Ali 8-0 to ensure a medal for India and then knocked out England's Jack Longthrone 6-1 in the second bout to finish on top in the round robin.
In the gold medal bout, the Bombay Engineering Group (BEG) grappler pinned down Jonathan Babulall of Canada to pocket the gold.
In the 46kg category, which saw a three-way race, Delhi's Deepak Kumar emerged on top. Trained under his father Ramnath, the gold on Tuesday was his third international medal. He has a gold in a Russian meet in 2007, while in Uzbekistan last year he had bagged a bronze.
Yukar Sibi and Laxmi N fetched two silvers for India in the men's 62kg and women's 53kg categories of weightlifting.
The Army Sports Institute's (ASI) girl Sibi lifted 112kg in snatch and 147kg in the clean and jerk category to finish with a total of 259kg and settle for a silver behind Aricco Jumitih of Malaysia. Uganda's Charles Ssekyaaya took the bronze.
Laxmi, who trains in SAI Bangalore, lifted 149kg (snatch 67kg, jerk 82kg) to finish with 149kg for the silver. Zoe Smith of England took the gold, while Bangladesh's Fayema Akther had to settle for the bronze.
The top two seeded paddlers Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal also maintained their winning streak to make the last eight of the table tennis event.
