Indian eves beat England to enter final, men in semis

Thu, Oct 07 10 10:27 PM

Diganta Biswas New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Indian women paddlers today assured themselves of at least a silver medal by entering the summit stage while their men counterparts advanced to the semifinals of the table tennis competition in the Commonwealth Games here. Seeded fourth, the Indian women''s team breezed into the final by spanking third seed England 3-0, while Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal led the men''s team to a 3-1 victory over South Africa at the Yamuna Sports Complex. By qualifying for the finals, the women''s team improved on its bronze-medal show in the last edition in Melbourne. Former national champion Kumaresan Shamini overcame some early resistance before beating Kelly Sibley 3-1 to give the hosts a winning start in front of a packed gallery, which cheered the home team''s every point. Bengal paddler Mouma Das and reigning national champion Poulomi Ghatak then came out with sizzling performances to beat Joanna Parker and Hannah Hicks, respectively, with an identical 3-0 scoreline. In the final tomorrow, the Indian women will take on top seed Singapore, who eased past Malaysia 3-0 in the other semifinal earlier today. "Our preparatory trips to China before the Delhi Games are paying dividends. We were confident, but did not expect to beat England so easily. We also got good support from the crowd," India''s foreign coach Massimo Constantini said after the match. "We now face the world champions in the final and are quite confident of giving them a good fight. Today''s win has boosted our confidence," the Italian added. In men''s category, second seed India started on a winning note after Sharath thrashed Theo Sydney Cogill 3-0. But in the second tie, Soumyadeep Roy squandered an early lead to go down 2-3 to Shane Overmeyer. However, A Amalraj registered a quick 3-0 win over Daniel Luke Abrahams to put the hosts back on track, before Sharath sealed the issue with a 3-1 win over Overmeyer. The defending champions will take on England in the final-four stage tomorrow. "Roy lost the second match but Amalraj played well to bring us back into the match. I was also a bit tensed in the first match but later found my rhythm," said Sharath, who has climbed one step to become world number 40 in the latest rating issued by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). "England is a very balanced team and it will be quite competitive tomorrow. We should now wake up to handle some stiff competitions," the lanky Indian added.

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Gill expresses regret over injuries to Ugandan athletes at CWG Games Village

Published>Thu, Oct 07 10 10:22 PM

New Delhi, Oct. 7 (ANI): Union Minister of Sports M S Gill has expressed deep regret over Tuesday's freak accident at the Commonwealth Games Village in which three Ugandan athletes were injured.

Gill conveyed the deep regrets on behalf of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee to Uganda's High Commissioner to India Nimish J. Madhvani.

Government sources said that Gill has extended an invitation to Uganda's Minister of State for Sports Charle Bakkabullindi and his family who are in Delhi to meet him at the Games Village on Friday.

Uganda's chef de mission William Tumwine, administrative officer Iren Matovu and press attache Juliet Achom were injured Tuesday night when a tyre killer malfunctioned at the village as they were entering the complex, police said.

While Matovu suffered severe eye injuries and required extensive facial stitching, Tumwine suffered a slight head injury. Acom had a whiplash.

Earlier, Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kuteesa had asked the CWG Organising Committee to apologize and even blamed it for ill treatment, but the latter refused to accept responsibility for the incident.

Security officials at the Games Village maintained it was a technical fault caused by the activation of the radio barrier. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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CWG: 34 medal-winning India holds on second position on Day-4

Published>Thu, Oct 07 10 10:17 PM

New Delhi, Oct.7 (ANI): India on Thursday maintained its second position standing in the XIXth Commonwealth Games with 34 medals. The current leaders are Australia with 70 medals. England is in third position with 46 medals at the time of the filing of this report.

On Thursday, India earned ten more medals. It now has 14 Gold, 11 Silver and 9 Bronze medals.

Australia has 33 Gold, 19 Silver and 18 Bronze medals. England has 12 Gold, 23 Silver and 11 Bronze medals.

Ace Indian shuttler and World No.3 player Saina Nehwal and other Indian shuttlers are battling England in the semi-finals after defeating Canada in the quarter-finals this afternoon. India is hopeful about making it to the finals of the event.

The golden streak struck over the last two days was kept going by pistol shooter Gurpreet Singh who joined hands with Vijay Kumar and Omkar Singh respectively to snatch the gold medals in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Pairs) and 10m Air Pistol (Pairs).

Haryana's Geeta gave India their third gold of the day on the first day of women's wrestling that made its debut, by comprehensively winning the 55kg freestyle event.

India scooped up a bagful of three silver and four bronze medals to firmly remain in second spot behind leaders Australia with a tally of 14-11-9 while the Kangaroos jumped further ahead of the rest with a haul of 29-16-14.

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 6, 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 four bronze medals came in archery (women's team compound event), woman grappler Suman Kundu (63kg) 77kg weightlifter Sudhir Kumar and Ashish Kumar, a surprise medallist in men's gymnastics (floor exercise).

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 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.

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 in men's hockey India went down tamely 2-5 against world and Games champions Australia.(ANI)

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Shot putters disappoint, Mandeep Kaur qualify for 400m final

Thu, Oct 07 10 10:07 PM

Philem Dipak Singh New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) India''s medal hopes in shot put Om Prakash and Saurabh Vij fizzled out after finishing fifth and sixth respectively on the second day of the track and field competitions of the Commonwealth Games here today. Om Prakash threw the shot put to 19.51m, well below his personal best of 20.02m and season''s best of 19.99m. Vij, who was permitted to take part in the Games at the eleventh hour after his provisional suspension for flunking a dope test was lifted by NADA, was worse as he could clear only 18.60m against his personal and season''s best of 20.65m. Canadian Dylan Armstrong, the favourite to win the event and season''s leader among Commonwealth shot putters, won easily with a throw of 21.02m, though it was lower than his personal as well as season''s best of 21.58m. Jamaica''s Scott Dorian won the silver with a throw of 20.19m while Australia''s Dale Stevenson bagged the bronze with a personal best effort of 19.99m. As expected, no Indian could qualify for the 100m finals, despite a depleted field resulting from pull-outs of a slew of stars, including Usain Bolt. The two Indians in women''s 100m sprint, H M Jyothi and Geetha Satti failed to qualify for the finals as they finished sixth and seventh in their respective semifinals heats. Jyothi clocked 11.86secs, much below her personal best of 11.60secs and season''s best of 11.65secs, while Geetha clocked 11.82secs, a tad below her personal best of 11.80secs which she ran earlier this year in May. In men''s 100m sprint also, Mohd Abdul Najeeb Qureshi failed to qualify for the finals after finishing seventh in his semifinals heat, clocking 10.40secs. Qureshi had equalled Anil Kumar''s five-year old record of 10.30secs in the round two heats yesterday. In women''s hammer throw finals, India''s Hardeep Kaur finished 10th out of 12 competitors by clearing 59.96m. Canadian Sultana Friziel won the gold with a Games record effort of 68.57m while Carys Parry (64.93m) of Wales and Englishman Zoe Derham (64.04m) won the silver and bronze respectively. Mandeep Kaur was the only saving grace for the hosts as she qualified for the women''s 400m finals clocking 52.60secs in a semifinals heat. She will though start as the worst timer in the finals. Team-mate Manjeet Kaur failed to qualify despite finishing third in one of the heats at 53.04secs.

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Pleasant weather attract players to international area

Thu, Oct 07 10 09:51 PM

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Athletes, boosted by the pleasant weather, today swarmed the international area inside the Commonwealth Games Village here on the fifth day of the ongoing mega event. Around 60-70 odd athletes were practicing at the training ground unlike other days when only a few athletes brave the hot weather and come out to train. "The sun is pleasant. It is good to practice and probably I will spend some more time exercising," said Jacques, an athlete from the Isle of Man. Players and team officials staying in the Village visited the international zone, an especially earmarked area that houses recreational facilities like cafes, merchandise stores, bars, restaurants, discotheques and games parlours, while many others went out for sightseeing. "It''s good. The sun is not harsh. I am going to buy something from the handicraft showroom here," said Catherine, a CGF official from Seychelles. The athletes also seen interacting with players from other nations. The area around amphitheater here, which usually remains deserted during the daytime witnessed a number of footfalls. The Games Village residents were in a relative relaxed mood as they were taking a stroll around the open space and pavements inside the international zone, The gate no 2 of the village, which acts as a temporary work area for the electronic media saw a number of athletes giving interviews while the media centre was abuzz with the activities as journalists were busy filing stories. The cops were seen in action and sniffers were checking every nook and corner of the Village in search of suspicious objects and to keep any untoward incident at bay. Over one lakh security personnel, including central paramilitary forces and specialised commandos have been deployed at all the competition and training venues to ensure adequate security for the Games. The 12-day long event featuring 17 sport disciplines like archery, cycling, gymnastics, swimming, boxing and shooting will conclude on October 14. Nearly 7,000 athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations are participating in the event being hosted by India for the first time.

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CWG hockey: India lost the plot early in the game

Published>Thu, Oct 07 10 09:47 PM

New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) India were shown their place in international hockey when Australia beat them 5-2 in a preliminary men's hockey league match of the Commonwealth Games here Thursday in front of a partisan capacity-crowd at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

The crowd had begun to gather hours before the game and had plenty to cheer when Canada fought like their lives depended on the outcome to force a 1-1 draw with England in pool B.

The Indians flattered to deceive tonight and at the end of 70 minutes, looked a spent force while the Aussies appeared fit enough to last another full game.

'We need to get to their fitness levels,' said Indian captain Rajpal Singh, but the difference between the two sides was far too obvious even before he made his way in for a Media interaction.

India virtually lost the match in the opening minutes when two elementary errors in the defence saw Des Abbott and Trent Mitton putting Australia 2-0 ahead.

Although India came back strongly to pull one back through Dharmavir Singh's brilliant effort from a counter-attack, the Australians hit the hosts hard in the second session when Eddie Ockenden, Liam de Young and Glenn Turner delivered the killer blows in a 10-minute spell.

In the last minute, Sandeep Singh came good with the sixth penalty corner, but by then, the match was history.

'The first two goals were gifts,' said India team coach Jose Brasa who also admitted that his team was among the worst at penalty corner conversion as five of the six awarded were wasted.

India's inability to innovate was to Australia's advantage in the second-half. Aussie coach Richard Charlesworth said as much when he pointed out: 'You can't win matches playing the same way as the Indians did. In the first-half we gave them too much space.'

The home team neither tried to slow down the pace in a bid to throw the Aussies out of rhythm nor they did anything different at all in the second half. Ultimately, the lack of fitness became increasingly apparent.

It was the fitness and some outstanding goalkeeping by Antoni Kindler that kept Canada afloat against England in a highly physical encounter that could have gone either way.

Canada struck in the 13th minute through Iain Smythe and England caught up in the 50th when Simon Mantell found the boards.

For much of the game, England controlled the pace and exchanges, but came up against Kindler who was simply unbeatable today. 'You don't see such goalkeeping every day,' said England coach Jason Lee.

England have four points from two games while for Canada, it was their first point from two outings, having lost their opening match.

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CWG athletics: Australian Sally wins a controversial women's 100m

Published>Thu, Oct 07 10 09:37 PM

New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) The showpiece women's 100m sprint of the Commonwealth Games saw some controversy as Australian Sally Pearson survived a false start to win the race here Thursday. Jamaican Lerone Ephraime Clarke won the men's 100m event.

Sally clocked 11.28 seconds to win the gold medal while Nigerian Osayemi Oludamola bagged the silver with 11.32 secs. The bronze went to St Vincent and Grenadines' Natasha Mayers, who clocked 11.37 secs.

It looked as if Sally headed out after a false start, but officials gave the red card to England's Laura Turner.

Turner was allowed to run the race after she remonstrated with the officials but she finished last.

Sally became the first Australian to win the 100m race in Commonwealth Games since Raelene Boyle in 1974

In the men's 100m, Clarke clocked 10.12 seconds and finished ahead of England's Mark Anthony Lewis Francis (10.20 secs) and Trinidad and Tobago's Aaron Armstrong (10.24 secs).

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