11 and counting, India’s gold hunt picks up pace (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - Weightlifters joined India’s gold medal bandwagon as the home country’s tally swelled to 11 at the end of day three of competition at the Commonwealth Games here Wednesday.

Weightlifters picked up two gold, shooters three and and wrestlers taking the overall tally to 23 (11-8-4), to occupy second spot behind Australia’s 41, including 21 gold. England were in third place with six gold, though their total was 26 with 11 silver and nine bronze.

India had won five gold, four silver and two bronze Tuesday.

While shooters and wrestlers were in the forefront of the gold hunt, Indians continued to move up in badminton, tennis, table tennis and archery.

Led by World No.3 Gagan Narang and Beijing Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra the Indian shooters set the Karni Singh range on fire, winning three gold and three silver medals Wednesday. Wrestler Rajender Kumar won a gold, while a silver and two bronzes also came in this event. Weightlifters N.Ravi Kumar and Renu Bala Chanu won a gold apiece.

The women’s table tennis team pulled off a major upset by defeating a strong Australian side to power their way into the semifinals.

Elsewhere, Sania Mirza and Somdev Devvaraman moved into the quarterfinals of the tennis singles, Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna moved into the men’s doubles quarterfinals, while Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi stormed into the women’s doubles semifinals. Rohan Bopanna, however, crashed out of the men’s singles.

India blanked Wales 5-0 and Scotland 4-1 to qualify for the quarterfinals of the badminton mixed team event while the women’s hockey team lost 1-2 to Australia.

Narang struck gold early, pipping Bindra in the 10m air rifle competition.

The second gold of the day for India was won by Anisa Sayyed in the 25m women’s pistol event.

Omkar Singh wrapped it up with a gold in the 50m pistol event.

The shooters continued the winning spree with junior world champion Asher Noria and world No.3 Ronjan Sodhi teaming up to net the silver in the men’s pairs double trap.

Rahi Sarnobat also bagged a silver in the 25m women’s pistol event.

Narang, who equalled his own world record in the qualification round with a perfect 600, went on to score 103.6 in the final round, leaving Bindra (698 points, 595+103) behind.