Gold rush continues for India at the CWG 2010-10/10/2010

10/10/2010

Gold rush continues for India at the CWG 2010

India flag kept flying at the CWG 2010 after the contingent won its 26th Gold early on Sunday. Shooters and wrestlers keep the momentum going for India as they inch closer and closer to that Manchester record of 30 golds



India won its 26th CWG gold with shooter Harpreet Singh winning gold in individual 25m centre fire pistol shooting event. Earlier in the day, archer Deepika Kumari won gold in the women's Recurve individual event. Dola Banerjee won bronze in the same event beating Malaysia's Anbarasi Sumramaniam.

India's world wrestling champion Sushil Kumar has entered the final of the Men's 66kg Freestyle wrestling event by pinning down his opponent Famara Jarjou of Gambia in just 9 seconds. This is the quickest time taken by a wrestler to beat his opponent in this Commonwealth Games. Sushil, who won his world title at Moscow, will be seen in action in the 66kg class to try and add to the country's gold medal haul that read a second-best-ever 24 going into the seventh day of competitions.

While shooters have provided 50 per cent of the gold medals won by India, the grapplers -- both men and women -- have not lagged too far behind and accounted for 9 (4 by men in Greco-Roman that has concluded and 5 in Freestyle including 3 in women's events).



The other three yellow metals have come in weightlifting (2) and archery. Apart from Sushil, Anil Kumar (55kg), Anuj Kumar (84kg) and Joginder Kumar (120kg) will also be trying their best to boost India's overall medal tally that read 24-17-17.

England - who stood second because of their larger number of silverware - had 24-43-29 to their credit last night while Australia were far ahead of the rest of the field with a seemingly unreachable 55-30-31.

Seven members of the highly rated Indian boxing squad, including defending champion Akhil Kumar (56kg), Beijing Olympics bronze winner and 2006 CWG silver medallist Vijender Singh (75kg) would be leading the country's challenge. All seven would be fighting quarter final battles in the afternoon or evening. The eagerly awaited men's hockey contest between arch-foes India and Pakistan, that the hosts have to win to remain in medal contention, is another highlight for the day and is scheduled at 7 pm.

In athletics, P T Usha's protege Tintu Luka, who lowered the women's 800m mark of Shiny Wilson recently, would take her first step to achieve Games fame along with her more experienced Kerala-born teammate Sinimol Paulose.
In men's discus throw Vikas Gowda, for long the country's best bet, is to take the bow while Geeta Satti (women's 200m final) would try and climb the medal podium, a feat already done by 10000m runner Kavita Raut and 20km walker Harminder Singh.

Other athletes like Anuradha Biswal (women's 100m hurdles), Mayookha Johny (women's long jump), Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil (women's discus) are also scheduled for action.
In shooting, India's most productive hunting ground with 21 medals won - five short of the best-ever heist of 26 in Melbourne 2006) - Suma Shirur and Kavita Yadav (10m air rifle individual), Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh (25m center fire pistol individual) and trap experts Mansher Singh and Manavjit Singh Sandhu are in the fray.

Source: IANS