Dey lifts gold as India march ahead

Glasgow, July 25: Sukhen Dey stole the limelight by clinching a gold in the men’s 56kg weightlifting, as India launched their campaign in the XXth Commonwealth Games with a flourish here on Thursday night. Ganesh Mali bagged a bronze in the same event.

Judokas Navjot Chana and Shushila Likmabam had to be content with a silver medal each after they failed to clear the final hurdle in the men’s 60kg and women’s 48kg events, respectively. There was a bronze for for another judoka, Kalpana Thoudam.

India were fourth on the medals table with three gold, four silver and two bronze behind England ( 18), Australia ( 15) and Scotland ( 10).

On Friday, Santoshi Matsa took the bronze in the women’s 53 kg weightlifting event.

In hockey, the men’s team launched their campaign on a sluggish note as they toiled to register a 3- 1 win over lowly Wales in their opening Pool A match at the National Hockey Centre.

India scored through penalty corner conversions by V. R. Raghunath ( 20th minute) and Rupinderpal Singh ( 42nd) before Gurvinder Singh Chandi scored from a field effort in the 47th minute. Wales’ lone goal was netted by Andrew Cornick in the 23rd minute from field play.

India take on Scotland on Saturday.

In badminton, India continued their good showing as they blanked Kenya 5- 0 in the mixed team competition to top Group B.

Meanwhile, the judokas failed to replicate their opening day performance with only Sunibala Huidrom managing to enter the bronze- medal contest in the women’s 70kg category.

Sunibala faced a tough test in the repechage contest but she managed to prevail over Monika Burgess of Canada in a battle that lasted for three minutes and 58 seconds to make the medal round.

She will now fight for a bronze with Scotland’s Sally Conway.

However,

it was curtains for Garima Choudhary in the women’s 63kg category.

In swimming, Sandeep Sejwal became the first Indian to clear the qualification round and make it to the semi- finals of the men’s 100m breaststroke event. Sejwal finished 12th overall after clocking 1: 02.97 seconds in the heat.

The paddlers continued their rampaging form as the men’s and women’s teams blanked Guyana and Kenya 3- 0 respectively in the group stage of the table tennis team competition.

Squash star Joshna Chinappa suffered a 1- 3 defeat against world no. 4 Joelle King of New Zealand in the Round of 16 to crash out of the women’s singles competition.

The cyclists’ dismal show continued as they failed to qualify for the finals of both the men’s 4,000m individual pursuit and the women’s 3,000m individual pursuit events.