Star marksman Abhinav Bindra stole the limelight by clinching gold while unheralded teenager Malaika Goel bagged a silver as shooters added two more medals to India’s kitty on the second day of the 20th Commonwealth Games here on Friday.
Bindra kept his nerve to take the honour in his favourite 10 m air rifle event with a final games record score of 205.3 to bring cheers for the Indian contingent. The 16-year-old Malaika Goel gave India their first shooting medal with a silver in the women’s 10m air pistol event while favourite Heena Sidhu fell by the wayside at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre at Dundee. Goel shot an aggregate of 197.1 in the finals to finish second and grab her first senior international medal after a close fight for the gold on the opening day of shooting competitions.
Indian men’s hockey team launched their campaign on a sluggish note as they toiled hard to register a 3-1 win over a lowly Wales in their opening Pool A match at the National Hockey Centre. Ranked ninth in the world, India had to dig deep to overcome a resolute Wales defence and pocket full points.
India scored two goals through penalty corner conversions by V R Raghunath (20th minute) and Rupinder Pal Singh (42nd) before comeback man Girvinder Singh Chandi scored from a field effort in the 47th minute. Wales’ lone goal was netted by Andrew Cornick in the 23rd minute from field play.
India will next play hosts Scotland on Saturday while Wales will be up against world champions and reigning Commonwealth Games champions Australia. Indian judokas failed to replicate their opening day performance with only Sunibala Huidrom managing to enter the bronze-medal contest in the women’s 70kg category.
Sunibala faced a tough test in the repechage contest but she managed to prevail over Monika Burgess of Canada in a battle that lasted for three minutes and 58 seconds to make the medal round. She will now fight for the bronze medal with Scotland’s Sally Conway later in the day. However, it was curtains for Garima Choudhary in the women’s 63kg category after she went down fighting in her repechage round.
Earlier in the day, Sunibala got the better of Australia’s Catherine Arscott in the quarterfinals in another tough four-minute contest, while it took her just 53 seconds to beat Memory Zikhale of Botswana in her round of 16 bout, as she got a couple of Wazaris, which is equivalent to an ‘Ippon’ that finishes a contest. Indian men had a disappointing outing as both Balvinder Singh and V Vikender Singh lost in the round of 32 in 73kg and 81kg, respectively.
In swimming, Sandeep Sejwal became the first Indian swimmer to clear the qualification round and make it to the semifinal of the men’s 100m breaststroke event. However, India failed to make the main round of men’s 200m freestyle event, as Sajan Prakash finished a lowly 22nd in the qualification. Indian paddlers continued their rampaging form as the men’s and women’s teams blanked Guyana and Kenya 3-0 each in the group stage of the table tennis team competition.
Bindra kept his nerve to take the honour in his favourite 10 m air rifle event with a final games record score of 205.3 to bring cheers for the Indian contingent. The 16-year-old Malaika Goel gave India their first shooting medal with a silver in the women’s 10m air pistol event while favourite Heena Sidhu fell by the wayside at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre at Dundee. Goel shot an aggregate of 197.1 in the finals to finish second and grab her first senior international medal after a close fight for the gold on the opening day of shooting competitions.
Indian men’s hockey team launched their campaign on a sluggish note as they toiled hard to register a 3-1 win over a lowly Wales in their opening Pool A match at the National Hockey Centre. Ranked ninth in the world, India had to dig deep to overcome a resolute Wales defence and pocket full points.
India scored two goals through penalty corner conversions by V R Raghunath (20th minute) and Rupinder Pal Singh (42nd) before comeback man Girvinder Singh Chandi scored from a field effort in the 47th minute. Wales’ lone goal was netted by Andrew Cornick in the 23rd minute from field play.
India will next play hosts Scotland on Saturday while Wales will be up against world champions and reigning Commonwealth Games champions Australia. Indian judokas failed to replicate their opening day performance with only Sunibala Huidrom managing to enter the bronze-medal contest in the women’s 70kg category.
Sunibala faced a tough test in the repechage contest but she managed to prevail over Monika Burgess of Canada in a battle that lasted for three minutes and 58 seconds to make the medal round. She will now fight for the bronze medal with Scotland’s Sally Conway later in the day. However, it was curtains for Garima Choudhary in the women’s 63kg category after she went down fighting in her repechage round.
Earlier in the day, Sunibala got the better of Australia’s Catherine Arscott in the quarterfinals in another tough four-minute contest, while it took her just 53 seconds to beat Memory Zikhale of Botswana in her round of 16 bout, as she got a couple of Wazaris, which is equivalent to an ‘Ippon’ that finishes a contest. Indian men had a disappointing outing as both Balvinder Singh and V Vikender Singh lost in the round of 32 in 73kg and 81kg, respectively.
In swimming, Sandeep Sejwal became the first Indian swimmer to clear the qualification round and make it to the semifinal of the men’s 100m breaststroke event. However, India failed to make the main round of men’s 200m freestyle event, as Sajan Prakash finished a lowly 22nd in the qualification. Indian paddlers continued their rampaging form as the men’s and women’s teams blanked Guyana and Kenya 3-0 each in the group stage of the table tennis team competition.