CWG: India set for record gold haul, thrash Pakistan in hockey (Night Lead)

NEW DELHI - India scored an emphatic win over arch-rivals Pakistan in men’s hockey for a semifinal berth as archers, wrestlers, shooters and a tennis star Sunday bagged five golds between them to take the count to 29 and set the country on course for its biggest gold haul in the Commonwealth Games.

In a fast paced match at the overflowing Major Dhyan Chand Stadium, India dominated Pakistan almost from the go, hammering the first goal within minutes and going for the break at 4-2. On resumption the Indian men did not let Pakistan gain the upper hand and scored at regular intervals to keep the pressure and win 7-4 for a

semifinal clash with England.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi were among the thousands of spectators cheering India to go for the win, raising hopes of a medal in hockey too at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Two archery gold and one each from the shooting range, wrestling arena and tennis stadium took the tally to 29, just one short of the record 30 gold bagged at Manchester Games eight years ago.

India’s medal count at 2100 IST stood at 29 gold, 22 silver and 22 bronze for a total of 73. Australia led the table with 60 gold, 36 silver and 35 bronze. England came third with 25-45-30.

Deepika Kumari, the 16-year-old archery sensation, set off Sunday’s gold haul by winning in the individual recurve. The daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver in Ranchi, she became India’s first individual gold winner from archery in the Games. She beat Athens Olympics bronze medallist Alison Jane Williamson of England 6-0.

Rahul Banerjee also won a gold in individual recurve event while Jayanta Talukdar and veteran Dola Banerjee and got a bronze each.

With four medals coming their way Sunday, India ended their campaign in archery with a rich haul of eight medals — three gold, one silver and four bronze.

Rising tennis star Somdev Devvarman rounded off the day bagging the gold in the men’s single’s.

There was no let up in the shooters good showing with Harpreet Singh taking the gold in the men’s 25 metres centre fire pistol event while the silver went to Vijay Kumar after a dramatic four-way shoot-off and former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu trapped the bronze.

The fourth gold of the day came from Olympics bonze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar in the freestyle 66 kg category.

Joginder Kumar and Anuj Kumar won the silver in the freestyle 120kg ande 84kg category respectively. Anil Kumar won the bronze in the 55 kg category.

It was an all Indian affair in the women’s tennis doubles for the bronze that saw Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi beating Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesha.

Vikas Gowda won the silver in the men’s discus with his season’s best throw of 63.69m.