At 11 gold, India’s Commonwealth Games tally continues to swell (Night Lead)

NEW DELHI - Shooters, wrestlers and weightlifters kept India in second place in the medal standings, picking up six more gold to swell their tally to 11 at the Commonwealth Games Wednesday, the third day of the competitions. With eight silver and four bronze also in the bag, India have 23 medals as against Australia’s 41 at the top.

Led by World No.3 Gagan Narang and Beijing Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, 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.

In sum, it was more than a satisfying day for the hosts as 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, Somdev 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 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.

Narang bettered his own World record of 703.5 he set at Bangkok World Cup final in 2008 and his own Commonwealth Games record in Melbourne four years ago.

The record, however, will not be ratified by the International Shooting Federation (ISSF) as it only recognises records set at the Olympics, World Cups, World Cup finals and World Championships.

In the wrestling competition, Rajender Kumar (55kg) won a gold while Manoj Kumar (84kg) settled for silver. Dharmender Dalal (120kg) and Sunil Kumar (66kg) won bronze.

Weightlifter Ravi Kumar won the gold in the men’s 69 kg weightlifting event, setting a new Games record in the process. He broke the Games record lifting 321 kg (146+175) and surpassed Cameroon’s Venecelas Dabaya’s total of 310kg, achieved in the 2002 Manchester Games. It is also a new Commonwealth Championships record

Chanu won the gold in the women’s 58kg category.

In tennis, Sania defeated Brittany Teei of Cook Islands 6-0, 6-2 to move into the quarterfinals of the women’s singles while Somdev got the better of Sri Lankan Amresh Jayawickreme 6-0, 6-1 to make it to the last eight of the men’s singles.

Rushmi Chakravarthi shocked third seed Katie O’Brien of England 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 to also enter the quarterfinals of the women’s singles.

Bopanna, however, lost to second seed Australian Peter Luczak 2-6, 6-7 (5) in the second round.

In the women’s hockey competition, Australia scored once in each half to wear down India 2-1 for their second win in pool A.

Goals by Shelly Liddelow (12th) and Megan Rivers (60th) set up the Aussie win as the Indians, who had drawn 1-1 with Scotland, woke up to the task rather too late and Rani Rampal’s strike in the 68th minute went in vain.