From left: India’s Poovamma Machettira, Papua New Guinea’s Betty Burua and Nigeria’s Regina George compete in the heats of the women’s 400m yesterday. (AFP)
Indian shooters continued their medal winning spree in the 2014 Commonwealth Games with Shreyasi Singh and Mohamed Asab winning the double trap silver and bronze while the women lifters also made an impact as Punam Yadav got the bronze medal yesterday.
India’s medal count touched 20—five gold, eight silver and seven bronze—but the 2010 hosts were still in fifth place behind Canada, hosts Scotland, England and Australia.
Shreyasi grabbed the first medal of the day by winning the silver medal in the women’s double trap event. The Delhi girl shot 92 in the final round to win the silver, the fifth for the Indians from the shooting competition at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre.
The gold went to England’s Charlotte Kerwood with a total of 94 points while her compatriot Rachel Parish got the bronze with 91 points. Another Indian in the fray, Varsha Varman finished fifth with 88 points.
Shortly after, Asab grabbed the first shooting bronze from the 2014 edition after he defeated 17-year-old Nathan Xuereb of Malta in the men’s double bronze medal match. Asab had topped the qualifying round with 135 points.
The 26-year-old Asab shot 26 while Xuereb managed 24. Another Indian in the fray, Ankur Mittal, missed out on a medal finishing fifth in the semi-final.
Abhinav Bindra, Rahi Sarnobat and Apurvi Chandila have won the gold medals. The silver medal winners, besides Shreyasi, are Malaika Goel, Prakash Nanjappa, Ayonika Paul and Anisa Sayyed.
Later in the day, Punam won the seventh medal from weightlifting by winning the bronze in the women’s 63kg category. Punam finished third with a total lift of 202kg behind Nigerians Olauwatoyin Adesanmi and Obioma Okoli who took the gold and silver, respectively.
Both the Nigerians lifted a total weight of 207kg but Olauwatoyin clinched the yellow metal because according to the rules the lighter competitor is deemed the winner. Olauwatoyin, at 62 kg, is a kilogram lighter than her compatriot.
The Indian had a best lift of 88kg on her third attempt in snatch and 114kg on her second attempt in clean and jerk.
There was also good news from the boxing ring as Manoj Kumar entered the quarterfinals of the men’s 64kg event.
The 27-year-old defeated Canadian Arthur Biyarslanov 2:1 in the Round of 16 at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. In the last eight, Manoj will take on England’s Samuel Maxwell tomorrow.
But there was disappointment for India in table tennis and track and field events. The women’s table tennis team missed out on the bronze medal match, losing to Australia 1-3 at the Scotstoun Table Tennis Centre. India lost the first singles match but won the second to tie the scores 1-1.
The 2010 Games silver medallists, however, went on to lose the next doubles and a singles tie to slump to a 1-3 defeat.
India’s Shamini Kumaresan lost the first singles match to Ziyu Zhang 5-11, 11-2, 6-11, 9-11.
Manika Batra tied the best-of-five rubber 1-1 by beating Jian Fang Lay in the second singles match 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7.
The 19-year-old had to battle hard after losing the second game but kept her nerve to grab the next two.
Madhurika Suhas Patkar and Kumaresan combine worked extremely hard but in the end failed to get the better of Miao Miao and Jian Fang in the doubles tie. Both teams were equally matched and played some fascinating table tennis.
The Indian pair twice took the lead—winning the first and third games—but the Australian team came back strongly each time to bring level the scores at 2-2.
Miao and Jian carried the momentum into the decisive fifth game, taking a 7-4 lead. The Indian duo didn’t give up and brought the gap down to 7-8 but the Australian team held on to win the game 11-7 and the match 19-21, 11-3, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7.
In the third singles tie, Ziyu Zhang got the better of Madhurika 3-2 (11-9, 5-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9).
After losing the first game, Madhurika won the next two to take a 2-1 lead. But like her team mates, Ziyu refused to give up and won the next two to give Australia the bronze.