CWG: On penultimate day, India closing in on 100 medals (Night Lead)

NEW DELHI - Boxers and paddlers picked up four gold between them in a late evening suge at the Commonwealth Games here Wednesday to take India’s gold tally to 36 and the overall medal count to 95 as the hosts and England were locked in a neck-and-neck race for the second spot in the medal table on the Games penultimate day.

At 2100 IST, India were at the second spot thanks to Paramjit Samota’s gold in the 91+ kg category.

Two other boxers won gold, with Manoj Kumar defeating Bradley Saunders of England 11-2 in the 64 kg category and Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh taking one in the 52-kg category after his Kenyan opponent Benson Njangiru gave him a walkover.

The Indian table tennis pair of Sharath Kamal and Shubhajit Saha bagged the men’s doubles gold beating Singaporeans Gao Ning and Yang Zi 3-2 in a nerve-wracking final.

With the doubles win, Sharath more than made up for his singles loss to Yang earlier in the day. The Indian pair beat the Singaporeans 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8 in the summit clash.

India is in the running for three more gold Thursday ahead of the closing ceremony in the evening - one from Saina Nehwal and the women’s doubles team in badminton and another from men’s hockey, though the Indians will be taking on world champions Australia.

As at 2100 IST, besides 36 gold, India has so far won 26 silver and 33 bronze medals for a total of 95, its highest in the Games that began 80 years ago as British empire games and became the Commonwealth Games in 1978.

England have 35 gold and their oveall count is 136 with 56 silver and 45 bronze. Australia lead the table with 71 gold, 48 silver and 46 bronze for a total of 165 medals.

There was also some bad news on the athletics front where Rani Yadav failed the dope test after the 20 km walk.

Rani tested positive for banned anabolic agent 19-Norandrosterone, the Commonwealth Games Federation said. The 20-year-old, who finished sixth in the competition Saturday, has provisionally been suspended pending a hearing.

This is the third positive test of the Games, Nigerian sprinter and women’s 100m champion Oludamola Osayomi, and her team-mate, the 110m hurdler Samuel Okon, being the other two. Both tested positive for using the banned stimulant Methylexaneamine.

Osayomi has been stripped of her gold medal, and all her results in the Games nullified.

Though the shooters did not win a gold Wednesday, their medal tally of 30 surpassed their Melbourne Games count of 27. However, they won 14 gold in Delhi while they had got 16 in Melbourne four years ago.

Pistol shooter Heena Sidhu missed the gold by 0.3 points and Samresh Jung settled for the bronze while Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the final of the 50 metre rifle prone individual event. Narang, however, emerged as the best shooter with four golds.

In the men’s 25 metre standard pistol, Samresh won the bronze with a score of 559 while the gold went to Singapore’s Bin Gai, who shot a total of 570. Trinidad and Tobago’s Daniel Peter Rogers got the silver with a score of 563.