Weightlifter Geeta wins 14th Gold for India in free style at C'wealth Games
New Delhi: Indian woman weightlifter Geeta won 14th Gold on Thursday evening in the 55 kilogram category of the free style wrestling, as India continued its winning spree. Earlier, the Indian women archers beat their Malaysian counterparts 223-219 to win bronze medal in the compound section, at the Commonwealth Games, today. This is India's sixth bronze medal. In the 63kg
category, Suman Kundu of India lost her semi-final bout. With this India on Thursday
maintained its second position standing in the XIXth Commonwealth Games with 34
medals. The current leaders are Australia with 70 medals. England is in third position
with 46 medals at the time of the filing of this report. On Thursday, India earned ten
more medals. It now has 14 Gold, 11 Silver and 9 Bronze medals. Australia has 33
Gold, 19 Silver and 18 Bronze medals. England has 12 Gold, 23 Silver and 11
Bronze medals. Ace Indian shuttler and World No.3 player Saina Nehwal and other
Indian shuttlers are battling England in the semi-finals after defeating Canada in the
quarter-finals this afternoon. India is hopeful about making it to the finals of the event.
The golden streak struck over the last two days was kept going by pistol shooter
Gurpreet Singh who joined hands with Vijay Kumar and Omkar Singh respectively
to snatch the gold medals in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Pairs) and 10m Air Pistol
(Pairs). Haryana's Geeta gave India their third gold of the day on the first day of
women's wrestling that made its debut, by comprehensively winning the 55kg
freestyle event. India scooped up a bagful of three silver and four bronze medals to
firmly remain in second spot behind leaders Australia with a tally of 14-11-9 while
the Kangaroos jumped further ahead of the rest with a haul of 29-16-14. The
shooting gold medals provided by the men's pistol wielders took the country's overall
gold tally from the Dr Karni Singh range to 6, showing how much the marksmen and
women have contributed in keeping India's flag flying high. Grappler Geeta trounced
her rival Emily Bensted of Australia in the 55 kg category final. She entered the gold
medal round by defeating Lovina Odohi Edward of Nigeria, but her teammate -
63kg grappler Suman Kundu - lost in the semi-finals. Men's double trap shooting ace
Ronjon Sondhi got a silver medal along with the men's archery compound team and
women's 48kg freestyle grappler Nirmala Devi. The four bronze medals came in
archery (women's team compound event), woman grappler Suman Kundu (63kg)
77kg weightlifter Sudhir Kumar and Ashish Kumar, a surprise medallist in men's
gymnastics (floor exercise). India struck gold early on the fourth day when marksmen
Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh clinched the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (pairs) event
before the men's and women's archery teams added to the medal tally with a silver
and a bronze. Kumar and Gurpreet together fired 1162 to bag the top prize in the
pistol event ahead of Malaysia's Amir Hasan Hasli Izwan and Adzha Hafiz (1142)
and Australian bronze medal winning duo of Bruce Quick and David Chapman
(1125). The Indian men's compound team lost to England by two points (229-231)
in the gold medal-deciding match while the women defeated Malaysia by four points
(223-219) in the corresponding event's bronze play-off tie. These were the first two
medals for the country from the archery range. The Indian men's archery outfit gave a
hard time to their English rivals before losing narrowly in the final. The trio of
Bheigyabati Chanu, Jhano Hansdah and Gagandeep won the bronze in the women's
compound archery team event beating Malaysia 223-219 in a thrilling third place
play-off tie that went to the wire. Needing five points to clinch the bronze with one
arrow left, Indians won the thrilling clash between the two Asian nations Hansdah
showed nerves of steel to calmly fire an 8-pointer to haul in the country's first medal
in the bow and arrow competition. The Indians went out of contention for the gold by
losing to Canada in the semi-finals while Malaysia failed to make the grade after
losing to England in the other semi-final. But world champion Tejaswini Sawant
and Lajja Gauswami fell by the wayside in the 50m rifle 3 position singles. Indian
challenge continued to remain strong in table tennis, tennis and badminton. The
women's team made it to the final of the table tennis championship by defeating
England in the semi finals. Men's tennis top seed Somdev Devvarman inched closer
to a medal in the singles with a 6-3 6-4 win over sixth seed Rubin Statham of
New Zealand. Ace Indian shuttlers Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal notched up
contrasting wins as India thrashed Canada 3-0 to set up a semifinal clash with
England in the mixed badminton team event. Mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and
V Diju just took 19 minutes to make short work of NG Toby and Gao Grace 21-8
21-12 in the first match of the day to give India a 1-0 lead. Saina then sealed the
issue in India's favour with a 21-16 21-13 victory over her one-time doubles partner
Anna Rice in the women's singles. But in men's hockey India went down tamely 2-5
against world and Games champions Australia.
