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The guns were booming loud for India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as Apurvi Chandila, Rahi Sarnobat clinched gold medal while compatriots Ayonika Paul, Anisa Sayyed and Prakash Nanjappa bagged silver medals at the Barry Buddon Shooting Range here yesterday. |
Sarnobat and Sayyed’s took India’s medal haul from shooting yesterday to five after clinching the top two spots in the women’s 25-metre pistol event. Rahi and Anisa ensured that another gold and silver were added to India’s tally after finishing in the top-2 of the semi-finals. The bronze was clinched by Australia’s Lalita Yauhleuskaya, who defeated Malaysia’s Alia Azahari in the bronze medal playoff.
Earlier, Chandela and Paul brought in a gold and silver respectively from the women’s 10m air rifle event, while Nanjappa took sliver in the men’s 10m air pistol. In the final, Rahi, who hails from Kolhapur, proved too good for Anisa by shooting a total of eight points to her 33-year-old opponent’s mere two. The 23-year-old Rahi had also topped in the semifinals with 16 points while Anisa finished second with 14 to enter the summit clash.
India are now fifth in the medals standings with 15 – five gold, seven silver and three bronze, behind England, Australia, Scotland and Canada.
It was an interesting battle in the women’s 10m air rifle event as Apurvi beat World No 8 Ayonika in an exciting battle to clinch the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle finals. For Apurvi, the gold was her maiden international medal while Ayonika clinched her second international medal, having won the World Cup bronze last month in Slovenia.
World No 17 Apurvi, who topped the qualifications with 415.6 points (a Commonwealth Games record), led in the finals right from the start and shot 206.7 points to give India second gold medal from shooting. The 21-year-old Ayonika was fourth in the qualification round with a score of 413.2 points and clinched the silver with a score of 204.9 in the final round.
Both Apurvi, 21, and Ayonika were engaged in an interesting duel for the gold medal after Malaysia’s Nur Sayani Mohamed Tayabi settled for the bronze medal with a final score of 184.4. Going into the final shot, Apurvi was always in lead and she held her nerve against the higher ranked Ayonika to clinch the gold, which was also India’s second from shooting.
Singaporean Jasmine Ser, who was the defending champion, finished fourth with a final score of 163.2. Her compatriot and World No 5 Martina Lindsay Veloso, who was the highest ranked shooter in the competition, finished fifth with a final score of 143.4.
The two medals for India came shortly after Nanjappa won the silver in the men’s 10m air pistol event. For Nanjappa it was a great comeback story after having been detected with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis, last year.
Australia’s Daniel Repacholi won the gold with 199.5 points from Nanjappa, at 198.2, while England’s Michael Gault took the bronze with 176.5. The 38-year-old Nanjappa was leading till the fourth round with a combined score of 100.9 but a poor fifth round – 17.7 – saw Repacholi go ahead. Though he had a better sixth round than Repacholi, the Melbourne-born maintained his lead to clinch the gold.
Nanjappa, who gave up the sport between 2003-09 until his father encouraged him to take it up again, had earlier advanced to the final after topping qualification while compatriot Om Prakash narrowly missed out, finishing ninth.
But there was some disappointment from the shotgun events as Mairaj Ahmad Khan was knocked out of the men’s skeet qualification. The 38-year-old finished sixth with a total score of 117 behind Cypriot Andreas Chasikos, who topped the standings with 120. Mairaj finished with 47 points, two behind Chasikos.
There was also good news from the boxing ring as Manoj Kumar entered the Round of 16 of the men’s 64kg category. He defeated Mokhachane Moshoeshoe of Lesotho 3-0.
In squash, Mahesh Mangaonkar entered the men’s classic plate quarter-finals defeating Welsh Peter Creed 3-0 at the Scotstoun Sports Campus. The Indian won 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 in the Round of 16 and will play the winner of the match between Sunil Seth of Guyana and Nick Taylor of Jersey next Sunday.
The Indian women’s table tennis team beat New Zealand 3-0 to proceed to the semi-finals. Judokas Sahil Pathania (-100kg) and Parikshit Kumar (+100kg) also advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s judo event but compatriot Avtar Singh lost in the men’s -90kg Round of 16.
India’s Deborah, Mahitha Mohan and Kezia Vargheese were knocked out of the women’s sprint qualifiers in the cycling track event at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
India were knocked out of the women’s fours lawn bowls after the team finished fourth in section B losing their last group match to Northern Ireland at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls centre.
