New Delhi: India seem to be maintaining their rate of two medals per day so far at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. On Saturday too, it were Indian weightlifters again, who added to the medal tally, this time with both of them gold. The day started with the gold medal won by Sathish Sivalingam in the 77kg category. Sivalingam repeated his performance from the Glasgow Games in 2014, where he had won gold, and maintained the standard in Gold Coast as well. Later, it was Venkat Rahul Ragala in the 85kg category, who gave India their second gold on Day 3.
The Guntur based weightlifter totalled 338 kg to win the yellow metal. He was given tough competition by Samoa's Don Opeloge, who won the silver in the same event. With these two gold, India's medal tally has reached six medals and all of them have come from weightlifting.
India's badminton team too has kept medal hopes alive as they set up a Mixed Team Semifinal 1 clash against Singapore following their 3-0 win against Mauritius. The India-Singapore contest will be played on Sunday.
In hockey, India drew 2-2 against arch-rivals Pakistan. Pakistan collected the second goal in the dying seconds of the match through a penalty corner. Otherwise, it was a great effort from the Indian camp as they dominated the field with telling moves and converted couple of chances.
India's women's and men's table tennis teams too reached semifinals after beating Malaysia 3-0.
In lawn bowls, India got good results. In Men's Triples Sectional Play Section A, Round 5, Match 2, the Indian team - comprising Chandan Kumar Singh, Sunil Bahadur and Dinesh Kumar - beat South Africa 18-17. In Women's Singles Sectional Play Section D, Round 5, Match 3, Pinki beats Niue's Pauline Blumsky 21-9. However, despite the win, she failed to reach the quarters on account of previous losses. In Women's Fours Sectional Play Section B, Round 5, Match 2, Farzana Khan, Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey and Nayanmoni Saikia oversaw a 24-9 win over Fiji. However, in Men's Pairs Sectional Play Section D, Round 5, Match 2, Krishna Xalxo and Alok Lakra lost 17-7 to Norfolk Island.
Now the disappointments. Weightlifter Vandna Gupta finished fifth in the 63kg weightlifting category. She lifted 180kg in all (80 in Snatch and 100 in Clean and Jerk) and failed to leave any impression. Canada's Maude Charron won gold, England's Zoe Smith won silver and South Africa's Mona Pretorius won bronze.
In gymnastics, Yogeshwar Singh finished 14th in the gymnastics All-Around final, totalling 75.600 after six rotations (11.400, 12.250, 12.600, 14.100, 13.000, 12.250). England's Nile Wilson won gold after aggregating 84.950, another Englishman James Hall claimed silver with 83.975 and Cyprus' Marios Georgiou took the third place after totalling 83.750.
In squash, Dipika Pallikal, wife of cricketer Dinesh Karthik, opted out of her Women's Classic Plate Quarterfinal 3 match against Canada's Samantha Cornett. However, the reason behind her decision is not known yet. The Canadian will now face Tamika Saxby. In another piece of bad news, Indian cyclist Manjeet Singh disappointed in the 15km Scratch Race qualifying after finishing 13th in Heat 2.
From the pool, India's Sajan Prakash finished last (8th) in the 200m Butterfly final with a time of 1:59.05. South Africa's Chad le Clos won the gold.
In basketball, India have lost their preliminary round game against England 54-100. Whatever little we saw, India struggled with passing and missed a lot of chances up front. Despite the presence of NBA stars like Bhamra in their ranks, India were largely in trouble as neither could they take on the offensive nor were they deft at defending. The English, on the other hand, produced stunning three-pointers and thwarted India with pin-point marking.
