India at CWG, day 9: Shooting, wrestling, boxing and TT spike medal tally

NEW DELHI: Another frenetic day of sporting activity at the 2018 Commonwealth Games has seen India increase their medal tally to 42, with hopes of several more to come over the remaining two days.




Winning gold were veteran rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant, 37, the 15-year-old pistol sensation Anish Bhanwala and wrestler Bajrang Punia; silver medals were earned by shooter Anjum Moudgil, wrestlers Pooja Dhandha and Mausam Khatri and the women's doubles table tennis pair of Manika Batra and Mouma Das; taking bronze were boxers Naman Tanwar, Mohammad Hussamuddin and Manoj Kumar and 19-year-old wrestling debutant Divya Kakran.



A third medal in table tennis was delivered by Manika Batra and Mouma Das who finished second best to Singapore's Tainwei Feng and Mengyu Yu in the women's doubles gold medal match. In the finals, the Singapore duo extracted a degree of revenge for the upset defeat that India's women's team handed the four-time CWG gold medalists on Sunday, winning 3-0.

The big disappointment was a sloppy performance from the men's hockey team, which lost 2-3 to New Zealand in the semi-final. The team will contest against England, who were beaten by Australia 2-1 in the other semi-final, in the bronze-medal match on Saturday.



With her second medal of the Gold Coast Games, a Games record total of 457.8 to grab gold in the women's 50m rifle 3 prone finals, Sawant had drawn India level with the 15 gold medals won at the previous CWG four years ago. That number was surpassed when teenager Anish - who this year was awarded Emerging Player of the Year at the Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) - won the country's 16th gold on Friday at the Belmont Shooting Centre, shooting a CWG record total score of 30 to become the youngest Indian gold medalist at the quadrennial games.





Following in second place to win silver, after Sawant, was the 24-year-old Moudgil with a combined score of 455.7 for her first CWG medal.

All four Indian wrestlers then proceeded to win medals. Bajrang, who won a 61kg silver four years ago at in Glasgow, turned in an utterly dominating performance against Kane Charig of Wales, whom he defeated 10-0 in just over two minutes. In the other gold medal fight, Pooja won silver in the women's 57kg freestyle after losing her final match against Olympic bronze medalist and two-time World Championship medalist Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria.




A debutant at the CWG, 26-year-old Khatri then stormed into the 97kg final where he was beaten by South Africa's Martin Erasmus to settle for silver. Teenaged wrestler Divya, who claimed medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Wrestling Championships last year, marked her first appearance at the CWG winning bronze in the women's 68kg freestyle event.




India's first boxing medal of the Gold Coast Games came from Tanwar, who was defeated in his 91kg semi-final by Australia's Jason Whateley on Friday to settle for bronze. Appearing in his first major senior event, the 19-year-old did the country proud by reaching the semi-finals to secure a medal, and bronze is a deserving reward. Also winning bronze were Hussamuddin, who was defeated 0-5 in the men's 56kg semi-final by England's Peter McGrail, and Manoj who lost his 69kg semi-final to Englishman Pat McCormack.



Adding to the hope of more gold medals were boxers Amit Phangal, Gaurav Solanki, Manish Kaushik, Vikas Krishan and Satish Kumar, who each won their semi-final bouts to reach their respective finals scheduled for Saturday. In the men's 46-49kg semi-finals at the Oxford Studios, Phangal beat Uganda's Juma Miiro 5-0, after which Solanki took a 4-0 win over Sri Lanka's Vidanalange Ishan Bandara in the men's 52kg semi-final. Third to advance was Kaushik who defeated Northern Ireland's James McGivern 4-1 in the men's 60kg semi-final. Krishan defeated Steven Donnelly of Northern Ireland to make it to the final of the men's 75kg. Satish Kumar became the fifth boxer to advance into the final after his opponent Keddy Agnes of Seychelles threw the towel midway through the second round forcing the judges to abandon the tie.



On Saturday, Phangal will face England's Galal Yafai in the gold medal match, following which Solanki will fight Northern Ireland's Brendan Irvine and Kaushik is set to face Australia's Harry Garside while Krishan will fight against Dieudonne Wilfried Seyi Ntsengue of Cameroon in the final. Satish will be up against Frazer Clarke of England in his gold medal bout.

India's badminton quarter-finals began on a sour note as Ruthvika Gadde was forced to retire hurt in her match versus Scotland's Kristy Gilmour, but the mood improved with the women's doubles team of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa beating Sri Lanka's Hasini Ambalangodage and Madushika Beruwelage 2-0 to enter the semis. The next pair to enter the semi-finals was Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who overcame their Malaysian opponents 2-1. Rankireddy and Ponnappa defeated Soon Huat Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia 21-19, 21-19 to enter mixed doubles semi-finals.

In the men's singles quarters, Kidambi Srikanth beat Singapore's Zin Rei Ryan NG 21-15, 21-12 and Saina Nehwal claimed a 21-8, 21-13 win over Canadian Rachel Honderich. On Saturday, Srikanth faces England's Rajiv Ouseph in the semis, Saina will take on Gilmour, Sindhu will play Canada's Michell Li and Prannoy is up against Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.



In the men's singles TT quarter-finals, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran was defeated 0-4 by England's Samuel Walker and Harmeet Desai lost in straight games to Nigerian Quadri Aruna. Achantha Sharath Kamal won his QF 4-2 and will on Saturday play Aruna Quadri of Nigeria in the men's singles semi-finals.

Advancing from the men's doubles quarters was the pair of Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shankar who beat Australia's Heming XU and Yan Xin 3-1, while England's Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho defeated Sanil Shetty and Madhurika Patkar 3-2 in the other mixed doubles quarter-final. In the second women's doubles semi-final, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabhudhe lost 0-3 and were later beaten 3-1 by Malaysia's Ying and Lyne in the bronze medal match.

In the quarter-finals of the women's doubles squash event, Joshna Chinnappa and Dipika Pallikal defeated their Canadian opponents 2-1 to enter tomorrow's semi-final. However, the men's pair of Vikram Malhotra and Ramit Tandon lost 1-2. In the mixed doubles semi-final, Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal got the better of their Kiwi opponents 2-1 and will now play the gold medal match against Australia's Donna Urquhart and Cameron Pilley on Saturday.




Shreyasi Singh's bid to become the first Indian to win both the trap events at the CWG did not bear fruition, as she was the second shooter to be eliminated in the six-member women's trap finals. The 26-year-old, in her second CWG, had won the double trap gold two days ago to lift hopes of second medal, but finished in fifth place with a score of 19/30. Shreyasi had finished joint fourth in qualification with a score of 67, while compatriot Seema Tomar failed to reach the finals with an 11th-place finish.

On day one of the men's trap qualification, Kynan Chennai shot 46 to finish at sixth place out of 40 competitors, well ahead of Manavjit Singh Sandhu who sat at 21st position. In the men's 25pm rapid fire pistol finals, Neeraj Kumar finished at fifth place.

In athletics, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra marked his CWG debut by finishing second in Group A of the qualifying round with a total of 80.42. In Group B, Vipin Kasana finished third with a total effort of 78.88. The men's javelin final is on Saturday from 10:05am.

Jinu Johnson finished second in Heat 2 of the first round of the men's 1500m. In women's heptathlon, Purnima Hembram finished 7th, out of 13 athletes, with her personal best score of 5834 points. India's men's 4x400m relay team finished second in Heat 2 of the opening round.