Commonwealth Games 2010 Day 3: India keeps the momentum going with 13 more medals

By Victor D’Souza, Doha
Various sources
Bellevision Media Network

07 October 2010: India kept the momentum going on the third day of the Commonwealth Games as the host nation bagged six more gold medals in shooting, wrestling and weightlifting. With this effort, 11 gold, eight silver and five bronze, India has 24 medals to its name as against Australia’s 46 at the top. Led by Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra, Indian shooters set the Karni Singh range on fire, winning three gold and three silver medals Wednesday. Wrestler Rajender Kumar won a gold, while a silver and two bronzes also came in this event. Weightlifters N. Ravi Kumar and Renu Bala Chanu won a gold apiece.

 

Indian shooters struck gold early on Wednesday as World No.3 Gagan Narang pipped compatriot and Beijing Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra in the 10-metre air rifle competition. Narang, who equalled his own world record in the qualification round with a perfect score of 600, went on to score 103.6 in the final round, leaving Bindra (698 points, 595+103) behind. The bronze medal went to James Huckle (693.5, 591+102.5) of England. Anisa Sayyed won another gold in shooting, this time in the 25-metre women’s pistol event. Rahi Sarnobat won the silver in the same competition.

 

Shooter Omkar Singh won the third shooting gold on Wednesday in the 50-metre pistol event on the third day of competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Junior world champion Asher Noria and world No.3 Ronjan Sodhi then teamed up to win the silver in the men’s pairs double trap shooting event. They missed the gold by one point. Noria and Sodhi together shot 188 points. Stevan Walton and Steven Scott of England bagged the gold with a total of 189 points, a new Games record. The Indian shooters have so far won five gold and five silver medals.

 

 

 

 

Indian grapplers gave the nation more reasons to cheer as they rounded off another good day by bagging fours medals, including one gold, in the Greco-Roman style wrestling competition at the Commonwealth Games, here on Wednesday. Rajender Kumar won gold in the 55kg category while Manoj Kumar (84kg) had to be content with a silver medal. Sunil Kumar and Dharmender Dalal bagged bronze medals in the 66kg and 120kg categories respectively.  Rajender started the medal rush for the hosts, overpowering Pakistan’s Azhar Hussain 11-0 in a one-sided final to fetch the gold and then Sunil overwhelmed Brett Hawthorn of Wales 14-0 in bronze medal play-off bout.

 

Dharmender drew curtains to the day on a high, clinching bronze in the 120kg after blanking Varntan Aparian of Cyprus 12-0 in the play-off bout. It all started with Rajender’s gold as he showed great class against Azhar and raced to 5-0 lead in the opening period, flipping his Pakistani rival twice. However, it was disappointment for the hosts in the 84kg final as Manoj lost to Agbonavbare. Wrestling has so far fetched seven medals for India in the Games with Ravinder Singh (60kg), Sanjay (74kg) and Anil Kumar (96kg) clinching gold medals in their respective Greco-Roman categories on Tuesday.

 

India’s Renu Bala retained her Commonwealth Games 58kg women’s weightlifting title on Wednesday with a commanding performance which delivered her country’s first Delhi gold in the competition. Bala, who turned 24 on Saturday, set a new Commonwealth record by lifting 90kg in the snatch before piling on the pressure with a clean and jerk of 107 for a 197kg total. Australia’s Sean Lee, with a total of 192kg claimed silver to add to her 2002 bronze medal from Manchester. English 16-year-old Zoe Smith took bronze with a 188kg total after a brave late attempt to knock the Australian from the silver medal position when she twice attempted 108kg in the clean and jerk.

 

 

 

India’s eleventh gold came from weightlifting as Ravi Kumar Katulu, who only took up weightlifting three years ago, rewrote the record books on Wednesday when he cruised to victory in the 69kg class. Kumar Katulu won with a record total of 321kg after having set new marks of 146kg in the snatch and 175kg in the clean and jerk. Defending champion Chinthana Vidanage of Srilanka took silver with 308kg while Mohammad Hafifi Mansor of Malaysia claimed bronze with a 306kg total. The 22-year-old former body-builder Kumar Katulu from Orissa was never threatened, lifting 137kg in the snatch, three kilos better than Mansor with Vidanage in third place on 134kg. It was India’s second weightlifting gold of the day after Renu Bala retained her 58kg women’s title.

 

Elsewhere, Sania Mirza and Somdev Devvaraman moved into the quarterfinals of the tennis singles, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna moved into the men`s doubles quarterfinals, while Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi stormed into the women`s doubles semifinals. Rohan Bopanna, however, crashed out of the men`s singles. India blanked Wales 5-0 to qualify for the quarterfinals of the badminton mixed team event while the women`s hockey team lost 1-2 to Australia.

 

In swimming, the Indian men`s 4x200m relay quartet of Rehan Poncha, Rohit Havaldar, Madar Divase and Aaron D`Souza made it to the final clocking 7 minutes 49.20 seconds to grab the eighth position in the preliminaries. Virdhawal Khade of India qualified for the semifinals of the men`s 100m freestyle after finishing 13th, while Pooja Alva also entered the semifinals of the women`s 100m butterfly by bagging the 15th spot, as the top 16 make it to the last four stage. India also secured its first medal in para-sport through Prasanta Karmakar in men`s 50m freestyle.

 

 

 

The Indian archers enjoyed a field day as both men’s and women’s archery teams made it to the semi-finals of the recurve and compound sections at the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday. The men’s team, comprising Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai, will meet a strong Australian side for a place in the title round on October 8. The women’s team, consisting of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Dola Banerjee, are pitted against Malaysia in the semi-finals on the same date. England and Malaysia will meet in the other semi-final of the men’s event while English women will meet Canada in their last four clash. India beat Srilanka 213-205 in the men’s quarterfinal match.

 

The athletics events started with concerns over the track at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, a part of which had been damaged during the opening ceremony, lasting the rigours of competition after it was repaired round-the-clock since the conclusion of the pageantry on Sunday. Off the field, the empty seats for most disciplines over the first two days grabbed attention with the Games Federation chief Michael Fennell bluntly telling organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi to solve the "serious issue". However, Kalmadi maintained that it was early days in the Games and with India picking up medals in many disciplines the interest of people will rise.

 

Indian boxers also continued their winning ways with Asian silver medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) becoming the third to enter the pre-quarterfinals with a comprehensive win over Nauru`s Colan Caleb in his opening bout. In sum, it was more than a satisfying day for the hosts as the women`s table tennis team pulled off a major upset by defeating a strong Australian side to power their way into the semifinals.

 

 

The latest medals tally at the end of day 3:

 

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Australia	21	15	10	46
India	11	8	5	24
England	6	11	9	26
Malaysia	3	2	4	9
South Africa	3	2	4	9
Nigeria	2	2	1	5
Canada	2	1	8	11
Singapore	2	1	1	4
Scotland	1	2	2	5
Kenya	1	0	0	1
New Zealand	0	5	2	7
Wales	0	1	1	2
Sri Lanka	0	1	1	2
Pakistan	0	1	0	1
Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1
Isle of Man	0	0	1	1
Bangladesh	0	0	1	1