Wrestlers, shooters shine on India’s golden day (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - On a day of golden moments for India wrestlers and shooters won five gold and two silver medals, marksmen set new records and men’s hockey team bagged three points in its first outing at the Commonwealth Games here Tuesday.

Wrestlers minted three golds and shooters two — the best by any country in two days of competitions - to push India up in the overall medals tally behind toppers Australia. The Aussies bagged four golds, three of these coming from the cycling velodrome and the other from gymnastics, taking their tally to eight. England with two golds are in the third spot.

In hockey Indian men bounced back to beat Malaysia 3-2 after trailing twice. The Indians did well in tennis and swimming too.

India’s gold rush on the second day of the Games began with Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and world number 3 Gagan Narang hitting the bull’s eye in the 10m air rifle pairs event. The two tallied 1,193 points together to beat their own record of 1,189 points set at the Melbourne Games four years ago.

Women shooters brought up the second gold, setting a Games record in the process.

Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed were bang on target in the 25m pistol pairs event, scoring 1,156 points to take home the yellow metal. The earlier record was 1,152 points held by Australians.

The inspired show by the shooters was capped by the wrestlers who made a clean sweep of the Greco-Roman category with Anil Kumar, Sanjay Kumar and and Ravinder Singh bagging gold in the 96kg, 74 kg and 60kg respectively.

Shooters also won two silver medals — Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh in the men’s 50m pistol pairs event and Tejaswini Sawant and Lajja Gauswami in the women’s pairs 50m rifle 3 position.

An elated Bindra said it was his “best moment” since winning the Beijing Olympics gold.

“This is my best moment since Beijing. It is always special to win a medal for the country. And this is the first time I am competing in such a big event on Indian soil,” Bindra, who was also the country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony, said soon after the pair’s sterling showing.

In tennis, Games top seed Somdev Devvarman sailed into the second round of the men’s singles beating Devin Mullings of the Bahamas 6-4, 6-2.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi entered the quarter finals in the doubles event with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 victory over Sri Lanka’s Amresh Jayawickreme and Thangarajah Dineshkanthan. Similarly Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesha breezed into the women’s doubles quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Aminath Irufa Mahir and Aminath Maleela Solih of Maldives.

In swimming, Veerdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal qualified for the semi-finals of the 50m butterfly and 100m breast-stroke events..