Another bagful of medals keeps India in second spot

Published>Thu, Oct 07 10 08:07 PM

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.

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.

The Indian men's archery outfit gave a hard time to their English rivals before losing narrowly in the final.

The trio of Bheigyabati Chanu, Jhano Hansdah and Gagandeep won the bronze in the women's compound archery team event beating Malaysia 223-219 in a thrilling third place play-off tie that went to the wire.

Needing five points to clinch the bronze with one arrow left, Indians won the thrilling clash between the two Asian nations Hansdah showed nerves of steel to calmly fire an 8-pointer to haul in the country's first medal in the bow and arrow competition.

The Indians went out of contention for the gold by losing to Canada in the semi-finals while Malaysia failed to make the grade after losing to England in the other semi-final.

But world champion Tejaswini Sawant and Lajja Gauswami fell by the wayside in the 50m rifle 3 position singles.

"We are happy with our performance. All of us held our nerves in pressure situation to clinch the bronze," Chanu said after clinching the team bronze.

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.

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.

With reports emerging that the Games swimming pool may be contaminated, leading to an increase of athletes in the sick bay, the organisers were Thursday left to do some emergency fire-fighting at the customary morning press conference.

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," he said, while responding to a query whether they would postpone the day's finals.

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No award can scale Sachin''s greatness: Kapil

Thu, Oct 07 10 07:57 PM

Kolkata, Oct 7 (PTI) India''s only World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev today said no award could actually determine the greatness of Sachin Tendulkar, who has been named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year. Reacting to the batting maestro''s winning his first ICC award yesterday, the legendary all-rounder said: "He doesn''t require any award. Sachin is so great that no award can measure him." While, hailing India''s thrilling one-wicket win over Australia in the first of the two-match series, Kapil said "Mohali Test once again brought back those good old memories," recalling his team''s win in Melbourne Test in 1981 and the tie Test in Chennai in 1986. The man, who took 434 Test wickets, also advised India to play more longer version cricket. "Playing 50 T20 matches and 50 ODIs is not good. The team must play a good amount of Test cricket," he told reporters during a promotional event here. Asked to compare between India''s Test victory in Mohali and the success at the ongoing Commonwealth Games, he said: "Every victory is important. But at the same time, you can''t compare it with other sporting events. Hockey, athletics and cricket are different games and it would be foolish to compare." Meanwhile, the former ICL chief Kapil denied any rift with the IPL. "There is no rift in cricket. There wasn''t any rift between IPL and ICL (Indian Cricket League). To me everything is the same. I''m only concerned with the development of the game." PTI TAP

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Punjabi univ announces Rs two lakh cash award for Gagandeep

Thu, Oct 07 10 07:52 PM

Patiala, Oct 7 (PTI) The Punjabi University, Patiala has announced a cash award of Rs two lakh to Gagandeep Kaur, who won a bronze medal in the women''s compound team event at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi today. The vice-chancellor of the university, Jaspal Singh said a special function would be organised to honour Gagandeep, a student of the varsity, for her outstanding feat. Singh said the remarkable achievement of Gagandeep would inspire others on the campus to bring more laurels to the university. "It will also inspire and encourage other students of the University to follow in the footsteps of Gagandip," he said. The Indian trio of Bheigyabati Chanu, Jhano Hansdah and Gagandeep won bronze in the women''s compound archery event beating Malaysia 223-219 in the third place play-off tie. PTI cor SUN DKS SHN

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SPORT-RACE

Thu, Oct 07 10 07:47 PM

Mysore, Oct 7 (PTI) Following are the results of 15th races held here today. 1st race: Chirapunji Plate - 1200 M. Jaanvi (F Sirajuddin) 61.5 Ryan Marshall first Stinger 56.5 S Mubarak second Silver Sceptre 62 R Pradeep third Zooming 58.5 A Qureshi fourth All ran Won By : 9 Ls, 1-3/4 Ls and 5-3/4 Ls Time : One minute, 15.64 seconds Tote : Rs 20 for win. Rs 13, Rs 18 and Rs 109 for places Favourite : Jaanvi Winner Trained by : Sirajuddin Forecast: Rs 44 Quinella : Rs 43 SHP : Rs 57 Trin : 70 pct Rs 1801 30 pct Rs 803. .

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Geeta gives India its first gold from womens wrestling

Thu, Oct 07 10 07:37 PM

Kushan Sarkar New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Haryana''s Geeta won India''s first ever gold medal in womens wrestling in the 55kg freestyle category at the Commonwealth Games here today. The hosts also got a silver in the 48 kg freestyle category in which Nirmala Devi lost her title round bout against Canadian opponent Carol Huynh. Suman Kundu got India its third medal from the competition winning her bronze medal play-off in the 63 kg category. Geeta, from Bhiwani, who had earlier won gold in the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship, literally toyed with her Australian opponent Emily Bensted by pinning her down in the second round with still a few seconds left for the bout to end. Geeta was enjoying a whopping lead of 8-1. The Indian grappler controlled the proceedings right from the start and never let her opponent make a comeback. She repeatedly got points employing the flipper tactic, catching the opponents leg and trying to pin her down. "I never expected the finals to be such a one-sided affair. I believe my semi-final bout against the Nigerian girl (Lovina Odohi Edwards) was a tougher battle. Comparatively the final was an easy one," an ecstatic Geeta said after her convincing victory. "I was always confident of doing well having won the gold in the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship earlier this year," she told mediapersons. The girl, who hails from that part of India which has produced champion boxers like Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar, informed that her father Mahavir Singh is her coach and she also dedicated her gold winning performance to her father. "My father is a former wrestler. I have learnt the tricks of the game from him. I owe my success to my father," she said. Even Sam Parker, the Aussie wrestling coach was all praise for Indian girl. "She (Geeta) was very good and thats why she won the bout. But I am happy about my ward (Emily)s performance," Parker said.

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Confusion at Archery venue

Thu, Oct 07 10 07:28 PM

Tapan Mohanta New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) In a confusion of sorts at the archery venue of the Yamuna Sports Complex the Australian''s countdown clock was mistakenly started when in fact the South Africans were shooting during the men''s compound bronze play-off. Play was stopped for almost 10 minutes while officials attempted to resolve the issue as that "affected" performance of the Aussies who lost by a narrow two points. Robert Timms, Clint Freeman and Pat Coghlan were defeated 232 points to 234 by Nico Benade, Septimus Holtzhaus Cilliers and Jacobus Ignatius de Wet. But the Aussies coach Simone Fairweather told PTI, "No there is no problem. We will not be protesting." Coghlan, however, appeared unhappy and said: "I''ve trained for four years for this and for incompetence to affect my result, I''m not very happy." "If we actually lodge an appeal we won''t lose, we''d actually get a bronze. With the clock not running, the first arrow that they shot becomes a miss. "It''s not the way you really want to win but in reality if the appeal got lodged I can''t see us losing," said the 36-year-old veteran. Coghlan however said the timing glitch was not India''s fault and it was a New Zealander who was the director of shooting. "It''s nothing to do with India." PTI TAP ANS

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Weightlifter Geeta wins 14th Gold for India in free style at C'wealth Games

Published>Thu, Oct 07 10 07:17 PM

New Delhi, Oct.7 (ANI): Indian woman weightlifter Geeta won 14th Gold on Thursday evening in the 55 kilogram category of the free style wrestling, as India continued its winning spree.

Earlier, the Indian women archers beat their Malaysian counterparts 223-219 to win bronze medal in the compound section, at the Commonwealth Games, today. This is India's sixth bronze medal.

In the 63kg category, Suman Kundu of India lost her semi-final bout.

With its total 30 medals--14 Gold, 10 Silver and 6 Bronze medals, India remained on the second position in the medals tally of the XIX Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi. (ANI)

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