Glasgow, July 29:
It is raining gold for Indian wrestlers as three of the country’s top pugilists – Sushil Kumar, Amit Kumar and Vinesh – clinched the yellow medal in different categories, and Rajiv Tomar bagged silver while shooters beg 5 more medals at the Commonwealth Games here today.
While Sushil pinned Qamar Abbas of Pakistan in 107 secs to own the gold medal in men’s 74kg, Amit beat Nigeria’s E Welson 6-2 and Vinesh beat England’s Yana Rattingan 11-8 in Women’s 48kg final to clinch the gold.
Sushil, a two time Olympics medalist had no trouble against his Pakistani counterpart and once again proved his mettle in the ring.
Meanwhile, Amit bagged the eight gold for the country as he defeated Ebikweminomo Welson of Nigeria. Leading 4-0 in the first round of 57 kg freestyle category, Amit was at his sensational best against his staggering opponent. This is first of the four medals won by Indian wrestler on Day 6. Vinesh, who faced Yana in the gold medal match of women’s free style 48 kg category led 6-2 at the end of first period, looked composed in her final match. She looked stronger and aggressive as she extended the lead to 8-6 in the second period of the match. She completely impressed with her approach.
Yana did good to make a comeback with 8-6 but Vinesh also got point lead to 11-8. This is second gold medal in a row after Amit Kumar took the gold medal. With the trio’s scintillating show, the Indian wrestlers have won 3 out 3 matches played on Day 6 taking the Indian tally to 34 with 10 gold, 14 silver and 10 bronze.
Indian shooters continued to dominate the Barry Buddon Centre with the unassuming Sanjeev Rajput and Harpreet Singh clinching a silver medal each but there was heartbreak for Olympic silver winner Vijay Kumar in the 20th Commonwealth Games here today.
Star marksman Gagan Narang had to be contend with a bronze while Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Lajja Gauswami, too, finished third on the podium, as India finished with an impressive tally of 17 medals (4 9 4) from the Games.
Narang, the biggest name in the fray, failed to defend his gold in the men’s 50m rifle 3 position on the concluding day of the shooting events.
The 31-year-old Narang, who had won a bronze in the 2012 London Olympics in 10m air rifle event, shot 423.3 while Rajput aggregated 436.8 in the final held under windy conditions at the Barry Buddon Shooting Center at Dundee near here.
Rajput and Narang were trailing at third and fifth after the three rounds of kneeling competition, each round having five shots. They were fourth and sixth respectively after the completion of three rounds of prone competition.
But both made a remarkable recovery in the standing position to bag the silver and bronze respectively.
Harpreet survived two rounds of nerve-wrecking shoot-off and brushed aside a penalty point docked on him to claim silver in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event.
The 33-year-old Harpreet from Haryana saved India from disaster by bagging the silver after Olympic silver medallist Vijay failed to qualify for the final round after finishing seventh in the qualification. Only the top six in the qualification round qualify for the final.
Harpreet, who topped the qualification round, hit 21 times on the target in the six-shooter final which had eight rounds of five shots each.
Manavjit bagged a bronze medal in the men’s trap event.
Manavjit finished third in the semi-finals after hitting 13 of the maximum 15 targets. He then beat renowned shooter Michael Diamond of Australia in the bronze medal match. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel