Indian hotshot, 15, blasts way into CWG history books

Fifteen-year-old Anish Bhanwala became India’s youngest CommonwealthGames champion with a stunning victory in the 25m rapid fire pistolyesterday.Bhanwala, who is already the world record-holder in the 25m standardpistol, fired an unbeatable maximum score of 30 points in the gold-medalshoot-off.The teenager immediately set his sights on this year’s worldchampionships and Asian Games, but he is also likely to be touted as afuture Olympic hope.“I’m very excited that I became the Commonwealth champion. I am theyoungest athlete from India to win Commonwealth gold at 15,” Bhanwalasaid, adding: “I will celebrate with my coach.”India’s only individual Olympic gold medal so far was won by Abhinav Bindra in the 10m air rifle at the 2008 Games in Beijing.India have repeatedly been on target at the Commonwealth Games, toppingthe shooting medals table with Bhanwala their sixth winner in Brisbane.Tejaswini Sawant and Anjum Moudgil clinched gold and silver respectively in the women’s 50 metre Rifle 3 Positions Final.Tejaswini registered a new Games record 457.9 points to take the title,while Anjum scored 455.7. Seonaid McIntosh of Scotland took bronze with444.6.Bajrang strikes wrestling goldBajrang Kumar won the gold medal in the 65kg while Mausam Khatri (97kg)and Pooja Dhanda (57kg) won a silver each and Divya Kakran (68kg) baggeda bronze medal as Indian wrestlers enjoyed a successful day.Bajrang needed only around two minutes to overpower Kane Charig of Wales by technical superiority in the final.Later, Khatri had to be satisfied with silver in his division. Khatrilost to reigning African champion Martin Erasmus of South Africa bytechnical superiority in the 97kg freestyle final.Khatri was trailing 2-12 when the officials awarded the bout to the South African.In the women’s section, Pooja lost 5-7 to defending champion OdunayoAdekuoroye of Nigeria in the final. The Nigerian had won the title atthe 2014 CWG in Glasgow as well. In the women’s 68kg class, Divya defeated Sherin Sultana of Bangladesh by fall to take a bronze medal.Manika-Mouma clinch TT silverIndian women’s doubles pair of Manika Batra and Mouma Das clinched thesilver medal while seasoned pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and G.Sathiyan entered the summit clash in the table tennis competition.In the women’s doubles gold medal match, Manika and Mouma went down 0-3(5-11, 4-11, 5-11) to Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in thegold medal clash. Unforced errors and some aggressive game fromSingapore kept India on the back foot throughout the match.In the first men’s doubles semi-final, Sharath and Sathiyan made astunning comeback after losing the first game and went on to thrashtheir Singapore opponents Yew En Koen Pang and Shao Feng Ethan Poh 3-1(7-11, 11-5, 11-1, 11-3).They will now face Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford from England in the gold medal match today.Indian boxers Vikas Krishan, Satish Kumar, Amit Panghal, Gaurav Solankiand Manish Kaushik entered the finals of their respective categories,while Naman Tanwar, Manoj Kumar and Mohamed Hussamuddin got bronzemedals after losing in the semi-finals.The finals will take place today, with MC Mary Kom also joining Vikas(75kg), Satish (91kg), Amit (49kg), Gaurav (52kg) and Manish (60kg) inthe hunt for the gold medals.However, the Indian camp faced some disappointments too. The big losstook place when Manoj fell against Englishman Pat McCormack 0:5 byunanimous verdict. In the men’s heavyweight (91kg) division, Naman lost 0-4 in tough, well-contested bout against Jason Whateley of Australia.Hussamuddin (56kg) lost to Englishman Peter McGrail 0:5 by unanimous decision.