Glasgow: Virtually taking over where the shooting contingent signed off at the range, Indian wrestlers scooped medals, picking up four silvers and a bronze, but the gold eluded the nation on day seven of competition at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Wednesday.
The grapplers cornered all the medals that came India’s way. Satywart Kadian, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang and Lalita won silvers, while Navjot Kaur garnered the bronze at the SECC Hall.
A day after grabbing three gold medals from the wrestling arena, the failure to add any more top prizes kept India in sixth place in the medal standings. With 10 gold, 19 silver and 12 bronze medals, India trailed England (35-34-29), Australia (34-32-37), Canada (20-5-20), Scotland (13-12-14) and New Zealand (11-9-14).
Kadian finished second after losing his men’s freestyle 97kg final to Canada’s Arjun Gill. The wrestlers were tied at 4-4 after the end of the bout but Gill was declared the winner since he effected a take down.
Sakshi had to settle for the silver after going down in the women’s freestyle 58kg final to Nigeria’s Aminat Adeniyi. The Nigerian completely dominated the bout and opened up a massive 10-0 gulf in two minutes 24 seconds when the match had to be stopped on grounds of technical superiority.
Bajrang was beaten in the title round by Canada’s David Tremblay who took just 84 seconds to overpower his opponent 12-1 in the first period of the men’s freestyle 61 kg final. The Canadian was declared the winner on account of technical superiority.
Earlier in the day, Lalita began the silver conquest for India by finishing runners-up in the women’s freestyle 53kg category. The final bout was, however, one-sided, as Nigeria’s Odunayo Adekuoroye took just 31 seconds to seal the gold medal. The Nigerian managed to pin down the Indian and raced away with the win.
Adding to the medal count, Navjot won the bronze beating Scotland’s Sarah Jones in the third place play-off in the women’s freestyle event.
There was also good news from the boxing ring as Pinki Jangra, L. Sarita Devi, Devendro Singh, Mandeep Jangra and Vijender Singh reached the semi-finals.
However, Amritpreet Singh bit the dust as he lost the men’s 91kg quarter-final bout to local pugilist Stephen Lavelle. The judges found the Scot to be better in all the three rounds to win with a scoreline of 29:28, 30:27 and 30:27.
In the showpiece track and field competition, Vikas Gowda advanced to the men’s discus throw final, topping qualification round 1 at the Hampden Park Stadium.
The silver medallist from the 2010 Delhi Games hurled the metal disc 64.32 metres to finish at the top of the qualification in both rounds.
Tintu Luka qualified for the women’s 800 metres semi-finals by finishing fourth in the heat.
The national record holder clocked two minutes and 2.74 seconds while Canada’s Melissa Bishop topped the qualification group in 2:01.73 at the Hampden Park Stadium.
The Asian Games bronze medallist, who has a personal best of 1:59.17, will participate in the semi-final on Thursday hoping to ensure a place in Friday’s final.
However, Mayookha Johny failed to qualify for the women’s long jump final, her 6.11-metre effort seeing her finish eighth.
Chandrodaya Narayan Singh could only manage an eighth place finish in the men’s hammer throw finals with a below-par 67.99-metre throw in the finals.
The badminton action also brought good news for the Indian contingent. The shuttlers made merry as all of them won their respective matches in straight games to enter the last 16 at the Emirates Arena.
P.V. Sindhu and P.C. Thulasi in women’s singles and R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap in men’s singles notched up wins in the Round of 32.
Men’s doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry also started with wins while women’s doubles defending champions Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa got a walkover.
In the ring, female Indian boxers Pinka Jangra and L. Sarita Devi, and their male counterparts Devendro Singh reached the semi-finals. But Amritpreet Singh bit the dust in the men’s 91kg quarter-final.
On the squash court, men’s doubles pair Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Sandhu won 11-7, 11-3 over Uganda’s Paul Kadoma and Michael Kawooya. They had earlier beaten their rivals from the Cayman Islands but lost to Wales to finish second in Pool G.
Joshana Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal then followed it up with wins over Malaysians Low Wee Wern and Nicol David (11-8, 11-5) and New Zealand’s Megan Craig and Kylie Lindsay to top Pool D of the women’s doubles with three wins.
In mixed doubles action, Sandhu and Joshana drubbed Paul Coll and Amanda Landers-Murphy 11-8, 11-10 to win their first Pool G match while Ghosal and Dipika beat Canada’s Shawn Delierre and Sam Cornett 11-3, 11-2 to win their second and final Pool E match to top the group.
It was a mixed day for Indians in lawn bowls, as Sam Bahadur won both his men’s singles matches while the women’s team lost their pairs match but won in triples at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls centre.
