The second day of competitions in the 19th Commonwealth Games on Tuesday, proved to be a golden day for India. The grapplers stole the limelight with three gold medals while the shooters grabbed two which took India to the second spot on the medals table. The hosts also emerged triumphant in most other events.India's overall medal tally swelled to a total of 11 medals, which included Five Gold, Four Silver and Two Bronze, as the shooters claimed a couple of silvers also. The hosts had bagged two silver and as many bronze on the opening day through their Weightlifters.The Indian men's 10 metre air rifle pair of Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and world record holder Gagan Narang started the gold rush for the country in the morning.The duo ended the first day's gold medal drought with a Games record of 1193, overtaking their own mark of 1189 set four years ago in Melbourne, to clinch the event.The winning streak was sustained by women shooters Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayeed who picked up the pairs 25 metre pistol event for women in style. The women added the second gold, breaking the previous Games record, set by Yauhleuskaya and Ryan at the Manchester Games in 2002.Two more silver medals came India's way from the Dr Karni Singh shooting range before greco-roman style grapplers Ravinder Singh (60 kg), Sanjay (74 kg) and Anil Kumar (96kg) made a clean sweep of all three gold medals on offer from the wrestling mat to round off a splendid day for the hosts.The two silver medals were earned by Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh, in the men's 50 metre pistol pairs event, and the woman's duo of world champion Tejaswini Sawant and Lajjakumari Gauswami, who stood second in the pairs 50 metre rifle 3 position.The three wrestling gold medals pitchforked India to the second place behind Australia after England overtook the home country briefly through their first two gold medals from the pool won by Liam John Tancock (men's 50 metres backstroke) and Francesca Jean Halsall (women's 50 metres butterlfly).Australia's tally stood at 9 Gold, 9 Silver and 4 Bronze. England were third with 2 gold, 4 Silver and 6 Bronze. The men's hockey squad, aiming to break the medal drought in previous Games, began their bid with a 3-2 victory over Malaysia in their group-A lung-opener. India trailed twice in the first half of the match, but made good recovery to post a win over their spirited rivals. India will next face World Champions Australia in their nextpool match on Thursday. The Malaysians will be up against Pakistan, who earlier in the day beat Scotland 3-0.Indian boxers enjoyed a rousing start to their campaign with Amandeep Singh (49kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) winning their respective opening bouts at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium.In Tennis, men's top seed Somdev Devvarman rallied from 1-4 down against little known Devin Mullings of Bahamas before progressing to the pre-quarter-finals with a straight set win, while the seasoned Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi marched into the quarter-finals.In other tennis matches, Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesha cruised into the second round of women's doubles. In Badminton, Indian shuttlers continued to dominate by dumping Barbados 5-0 in their second preliminary match of the mixed team event.In squash, India's challenge in the singles came to an end after the country's top ranked players Saurav Goshal and Joshna Chinappa lost their respective third round matches.In swimming, Veerdhawal Khade entered the final of the men's 50 metres butterfly event. This will be India's second final appearance since the men's 4 x 100 metre freestyle relay team created history the previous day by qualifying for the final.In Cycling, the unseeded Indian team began their campaign on a lacklustre note in the track cycling event in both men's and women's category at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. Sombir, Vinod Mallik and Dayala Ram Saran failed to qualify for the men's individual pursuit with Sombir being the best of three by finishing with a timing of four minutes, 54 seconds.In the women's 5000 metres time trial final, Indian women failed to beat the likes of reigning Commonwealth record holder Anna Meares of Australia.In archery, it was a mixed day for India. The recurve section saw a thumping performance but the compound section was a big led down. Top seed Rahul Banerjee, along with Jayanta Talukdar, booked quarterfinal berths in men's recurve, while the duo of Deepika Kumari and Dola Banerjee, too lived up to their billing to book a last-eight berth.But the compound archers bowed out in the last 16 stage, leaving India in contention for four Gold Medals.In Table-Tennis, Indian women spanked Ghana 3-0 to enter quarter-final of the team event, while their men counterparts consolidated their position by thrashing Guyana with an identical scoreline.
News On AIR | October 6, 2010 9:05 AM
Indian Wrestlers and Shooters shine, earn 5 gold medals in CWG