CWG: Wrestler Bajrang, shooters Anish and Tejaswini reign supreme; 6 boxers in finals

Gold Coast: Shooters Anish Bhanwala and Tejaswini Sawant clinched gold medals, while wrestlers earned four medals, including a golden show from Bajrang, even as five boxers entered the finals on a day India clinched 10 medals at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Friday.

Among other success stories, Indian shuttlers claimed berths in seven semi-finals, while the women’s doubles pair of Manika Batra and Mouma Das clinched the silver medal and seasoned men’s doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan entered the summit clash in the table tennis competitions.

Indian boxers Vikas Krishan (75kg), Satish Kumar (91kg), Amit Panghal (49kg), Gaurav Solanki (52kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg), along with M.C. Mary Kom, will fight in gold-medal bouts, while Naman Tanwar, Manoj Kumar and Mohammed Hussamuddin got bronze medals after losing in the semi-finals, even as the men’s hockey team lost 2-3 to New Zealand in the semi-finals.

In squash, Dipika Pallikal partnered Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa to advanced to the final and semi-finals of the mixed doubles and women’s doubles, respectively.

In athletics, Neeraj Chopra, Vipin Kashana and Jinson Johnson entered the finals of their respective events.

At the end of Friday, India remains third in the medal table — with 42 medals (17 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze) — after Australia (168 medals) and England (99 medals).

The day began with Anish creating history by becoming the youngest Indian gold medallist with a win in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. Anish fired 30 points — a meet record in the final.

Tejaswini and Anjum Moudgil clinched silver and gold, respectively, in the women’s 50 metre Rifle 3 Positions to continue the strong performances from the shooters. Tejaswini registered a new Games record of 457.9 points, while Anjum scored 455.7.

Then the wrestlers, led by Bajrang, took charge. Bajrang won the gold medal in the 65kg category, while Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Pooja Dhanda (57kg) won a silver each and Divya Kakran (68kg) bagged a bronze medal.

Bajrang needed only around two minutes to overpower Kane Charig of Wales by technical superiority in the final. The Indian came up with a series of awe-inspiring performances over the course of his campaign to win all his bouts through technical superiority.

Later, Khatri had to be satisfied with silver after losing to reigning African champion Martin Erasmus of South Africa on account of technical superiority.

In the women’s section, Pooja lost 5-7 to defending champion Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria in the final. Pooja had defeated Joseph Tiako of Cameroon 11-5 in the semi-finals. Divya defeated Sherin Sultana of Bangladesh by fall to take a bronze medal.

In hockey action, the men’s and the women’s hockey team will play the bronze medal playoffs against the teams from England on Saturday. On Friday, the Indian men’s team failed to recover from a poor start, losing to New Zealand 2-3 in a semi-final.

India put up a disastrous defensive performance in the first quarter to concede two goals to Hugo Inglis (7th minute), Stephen Jenness (13th). Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty stroke in the 29th minute but Markus Child regained New Zealand’s two-goal lead in the 40th minute. India reduced the deficit to one in the 57th minute through a penalty corner conversion from Harmanpreet but it proved to be too late to find an equaliser.

In table tennis, India’s women’s doubles pair of Manika Batra and Mouma Das went down 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11) to Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in the gold medal clash. The other women’s doubles pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Saharabudhe lost 1-3 (13-15, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11) to Ho Ying and Lyne Karen of Malaysia in the bronze medal match.

In the first men’s doubles semi-final, Sharath and Sathiyan won 3-1 (7-11, 11-5, 11-1, 11-3) against Singapore opponents Yew En Koen Pang and Shao Feng Ethan Poh to guarantee at least a silver medal.

Veteran Sharath has also reached semi-finals in the singles and the mixed doubles categories — as are Mouma, Manika and Sathiyan.

In squash actions, the mixed doubles pair of Dipika and Saurav stormed into the final after defeating New Zealand’s Joelle King and Paul Coll 2-1 (9-11, 11-8, 11-10). Dipika then joined Joshna to enter the women’s doubles semi-finals after a 2-1 (7-11, 11-5, 11-9) win over Canada’s Samantha Cornett and Nikki Todd.

In badminton, Saina Nehwal hardly broke sweat to clinch a 21-8, 21-13 win over Canada’s Rachel Honderich, while P.V. Sindhu also notched up a comfortable 21-14, 21-17 win over another Canadian, Brittney Tam.

In the men’s singles, World No.1 Srikanth thrashed Singapore’s Zin Rei Ryan 21-15, 21-12, while Prannoy eased past Sri Lankan Dinuka Karunaratna 21-13, 21-6 to set up a clash against Lee Chong Wei.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also enjoyed strong performances to advance to the semi-finals in both the doubles categories. They fought off Malaysian mixed doubles pair Soon Goh Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie with a 21-19, 21-19 win to enter the final.

Ashwini and N. Sikki Reddy comfortably thrashed the Sri Lankan pair of Hasini Ambalangodage and Madushika Dilrukshi Beruwelage 21-11, 21-13.

Satwik then paired up with Chirag Shetty to get past Malaysian men’s doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon and Huat 21-14, 15-21, 21-9.

In athletics, Chopra and Kashana entered the final of the men’s Javelin Throw. Chopra hurled the javelin to a distance of 80.42 metres to take the second place in Group A of the qualification round. Kashana registered 78.88m to qualify as the third thrower in Group B.

Later, Johnson finished second in Heat 2 of the men’s 1,500m with a time of 3 minutes and 47.04 seconds.

(IANS)