India maintains slender edge from England for second place in CWG

NEW DELHI - India maintained a slender edge for the second position in the ongoing XIX Commonwealth Games with 58 medals; 24 Gold, 17 Silver, 17 Silver medals on the sixth day.

England’s medal tally read 92 medals; 23 Gold, 41 Silver, and 28 Bronze medals .

Australia remained at the top position with 115 medals; 54 Gold, 30 Silver, and 31 Bronze medals.

In the evening, Indian woman weightlifter Monika Devi won a Bronze medal in the 75 kg category in the evening while pugilist Akhil Kumar advanced into quarter final round in the 56 kg category.

However, India were eliminated from the semi-final racein women’s hockey, despite winning 3-1 against South Africa .

Indians, silver medalists in the 2006 Melbourne Games, finished with seven points from their four Pool A matches, the same as South Africa, but lost out on goal difference.

On the sixth day of competitions at the C’wealth Games, the highlight of India’s show, however, was Gagan Narang’s fourth Gold of the Games. The shooter emerged victorious in the 50 metre rifle 3 position shooting event on Saturday afternoon. Gagan also created a new Games record scoring 1262.2 points. The Silver in the event went to Jonathan Hemund of Scotland and Bronze to James Heckle of England.

The first medal of the day for India came in Athletics with Harminder Singh securing bronze in 20 Kilometer Men’s walk race on Saturday morning. Australia won the Gold and Silver in this event. A jubilant Harminder expressed happiness on his achievement.

Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh won Gold in 25 metres Centre fire pistol pairs in shooting. It was the third Gold for Vijay Kumar in the current Games. It is the second Golden hat-trick by an Indian shooter, after Gagan Narang’s feat.

In Wrestling, India’s Yogeshwar Dutt won the Gold in the 60 Kilogram freestyle event, beating Canada’s James Mancini.

The fourth Gold for the country came through Narsingh Pancham Yadav in the 74 kg category wrestling event. Yadav defeated South Africa’s Richard Brain Addinall.

In Women’s 20 Kilometres walk category on Saturday morning, England’s Jo Jackson won the Gold. Australia’s C. Tallent won the Silver while Kenya won the Bronze.

India also won a Bronze on Saturday in shooting when Suma Shirur and Kavita Yadav finished third in 10 meter Air rifle pairs.

Another Bronze medal came from Table-Tennis as Indian men’s team defeated Nigeria 3-0 in the contest for the third place.

In Squash, India’s Harvinder Paul Sandhu and Sandeep Jhangda defeated Uganda 8-11,11-4,11-3 to advance to the sixth round.

In Tennis, however, the biggest disappointment for Indian tennis lovers was Sania Mirza missing her Gold Medal, as she failed to win in the women’s singles final match against Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova.

In a spirited match, Anastasia defeated Sania by 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 and won the Gold medal for Australia.

Sania won the Silver medal.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, while playing against their Indian compatriots Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devverman, won Bronze medal 6-3, 7-6.

The day had started, with 32 gold medals up for grabs in Archery, shooting, Wrestling, weightlifting and Tennis events. India’s quest for more medals is being watched with keen anticipation.

Hosts India are hoping for Gold medals in Weightlifting events.

Two Golds will be decided in 94 kilogram men’s and 75 kilogram women’s categories. India are looking for a good show from lifters Gita Rani, Monika Laishram Devi and Srishti Singh in women’s category. (ANI)