Glasgow, July 28: ‘Pistol King’ Jitu Rai kept his reputation intact by clinching the gold medal before Gagan Narang and Gurpal Singh claimed a silver each to continue the shooters’ heroics while Vijender Singh led the charge in boxing by advancing to the quarterfinals on the fifth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here today.
The 26-year-old Rai, world number 4 in the event, gave ample display of his class by taking the honour in the men’s 50 m pistol event as the Indian shooters continued to dominate the ranges.
Gurpal Singh also took the spotlight with his silver-winning effort in the same event while Narang, taking part for the first time in the 50 m rifle prone event, had to be content with a silver as the shooters did the bulk of the medal shopping during the day.
Star Indian boxer Vijender (75kg) continued his sublime form to enter the quarterfinals along with gritty youngster L Devendro Singh (49kg), but there was heartbreak for Shiva Thapa (56kg), who went down to Olympic bronze-medallist Michael Conlan of Northern Ireland.
Vijender, a former Olympic and World Championships bronze-medallist, outpunched Namibia’s Mujandjae Kasuto 3-0 in a lopsided contest to make the last-eight stage.
Such was the former world number one’s domination that he managed a perfect 10 score from every judge in each of the three rounds.
With the addition of three more medals, India’s overall haul swelled to 25 with seven gold, 11 silver and seven bronze and were placed fourth in the medal standings.
Australia were at the top with 27 gold, 21 silver and 27 bronze medals, followed by England (24 gold, 17 silver, 19 bronze) and hosts Scotland (12 gold, eight silver and 11 bronze).
Rai shot 194.1 to bag his first Commonwealth Games gold on debut while Gurpal had an aggregate of 187.2 to win the silver, his first international medal. Australia’s Daniel Repacholi was third.
With the three medals, India’s medal tally from the Barry Buddon Shooting Center has shot up to 12 (4, 7, 1), three more than England who have eight, including three gold medals.
Nepal-born Rai, who won a gold (in 10m air pistol) and a silver (in 50m pistol) in the World Cup last month, was third in the first series but then recovered quickly and led the field throughout after that.
There was, however, disappointment in women’s 50-metre
rifle prone event as Meena Kumari and Lajja Gauswami finished a disappointing sixth and 11th, respectively, in the finals.
India drew a blank in the badminton mixed team event after going down fighting to Singapore 2-3 in the bronze medal play-off.
Despite star attraction Saina Nehwal’s pull out from the Games in the last minute, there were high expectations from Indian shuttlers especially with P V Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap and reigning Commonwealth women’s doubles champion pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa up their ranks.
But the team failed to deliver when it mattered most to return empty handed from the mixed team event.
It was not the best of starts to the bronze medal encounter for 10th ranked India, who lost to 2010 Delhi Games bronze medallist England 0-3 in the semifinals yesterday.
Indian men’s table tennis team failed to secure a medal for the first time at the Games after being stunned 1-3 by Nigeria in the bronze medal play-off at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.
The unexpected loss meant Indian men will return empty handed from the team event for the first time since the sport’s introduction in the Games at Manchester in 2002.
India’s wait for its first squash medal at the Commonwealth Games was prolonged with Saurav Ghosal’s fighting loss to Englishman Peter Barker in the bronze medal playoff.
World No.16 Ghosal needed to come up with something special for his first win over his eighth-ranked opponent. The Indian tried his best before going down 5-11 11-6 5-11 6-11.
India’s leading female player Dipika Pallikal had suffered a quarterfinal loss against England’s Alison Waters and Joshana Chinappa bowed out of the competition in the round of 16.
C Narayan Singh qualified for the finals of the men’s hammer throw event Even as Kamalpreet Singh crashed out in the qualifying round.
23-year-old Narayan threw the hammer to a distance of 67.95 in his first attempt, which proved to be his best and enough to make it to the 12-man final.
Kamalpreet, competing in other group, finished sixth with his best throw of 65.25m, which came in his first attempt. He managed 62.90m and 63.67m in his next two attempts.
Narang, who has won four medals each in both the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games but in other events, lost out the gold to Warren Potent of Australia by 0.7 points.
Narang collected 203.6 in the 20-shot final round, while gold-winner Potent scored 204.3. Kenneth Parr of England bagged the bronze.
This is Narang’s first Commonwealth Games medal in his first appearance in 50m rifle prone, which is not his pet event. Narang, who won a bronze in men’s 10m Air Rifle in 2012 London Olympics, will also take part in men’s 50m rifle 3 position event tomorrow.
This is also India’s second medal in this event in the Commonwealth Games, with Sanjiv Rajput having won a bronze in the 2006 Melbourne Games.
Today, Narang failed to become only the third shooter to win nine gold medals in the Commonwealth Games but he still has a chance to achieve the feat when he takes the field in 50m rifles 3 position. India’s Jaspal Rana and England’s Michael Gault have won nine gold in Commonwealth Games.
In boxing, the 28-year-old Vijender, who settled for a bronze in the previous edition of the Games, will face Trinidad and Tobago’s Aaron Prince in his next quarters.
Earlier, Devendro (49kg) advanced to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought win.
Asian Championships silver-medallist Devendro made the quarterfinals after notching up a tough 2-1 victory over Sri Lanka’s Madushan Gamage.
The Indian started off confidently, getting a perfect 10 score from all three judges in the opening three minutes. However, in the next round, Devendro, who looks to drain his opponents with a flurry of punches, was left surprised when Gamage came back strongly to clinch it 29-28.
However, the Indian youngster muzzled the challenge in the deciding three minutes, snatching it 30-28 to be just one more win away from assuring himself of a medal in his debut Commonwealth Games.
The 22-year-old Manipuri will face Scotland’s Aqeel Ahmed in the last-eight stage on July 30. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
