Gold rush for Indian women on Gold Coast
Shooters, paddlers give the contingent lots to cheer
India’s Manu Bhaker and Heena Sidhu won the gold and silver medals in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event respectively, while Ravi Kumar took bronze medal in the men’s 10 metre air rifle event of the 21st Commonwealth Games here yesterday.
In a campaign which is reminiscent of India’s performance in Rio 2016 where women called the shots, they clinched their maiden gold in table tennis as well.
Haryana’s 16-year-old Bhaker produced a spectacular performance, setting a new CWG record with a total of 240.9 points in the final round.
Bhaker was in fine form coming into her maiden CWG appearance, having won 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed event gold medals at the ISSF World Cup earlier this year in Mexico.
Experienced Sidhu registered 234 points to make it 1-2 for India at the top of the podium. It was her first medal at the CWG. She made her CWG debut in 2010 New Delhi edition.
Australia’s Elena Galiabovitch took bronze with 214.9 to bring some cheer for the hosts.
During the qualifications, Bhaker topped the qualification stage with a total of 388 points. Sidhu qualified at the second spot with 379 points. “I am very happy ... it is my first Commonwealth Games and I won with a qualification record also. The gap between me and the second competitor, that was a huge margin. So it was a pleasure winning this medal for India and I am very, very happy,” Bhaker said.
Ravi’s bronze medal in the 10 metre air rifle event ensured that India bag their third medal on the opening day of the shooting competitions here.
Ravi shot a total of 224.1 to finish behind Australian Dane Sampson (245) and Bangladesh’s Abdullah Hel Baki (244.7), who won the gold and silver, respectively at the Belmont Shooting Centre here.
Best display
He survived a shoot-off in the final to finish with a score of 244.7. He had taken bronze in this event at last month’s International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, as well. Deepak Kumar, the second Indian in the fray, also qualified for the finals but eventually finished sixth. Deepak registered a total of 162.3.
In table tennis, Manika Batra won two matches as Indian women’s table tennis team upset favourites Singapore to clinch their first gold medal in the event. Singapore came into this match as the defending champions and have won the event at every edition since it was first introduced in 2002 while India’s best display was a runner-up finish in Delhi in 2010.
Unperturbed by the status of their opposition, Indian paddlers played valiantly till the end to taste the gold.
In the first rubber, World No. 58 Batra upset World No. 4 Tianwei Feng 3-2 (11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 119, 11-7) to take the 1-0 lead.
In all the five close games, Batra held her nerves and stood up to the pressure situation. At one point she had no answers to her opponents’ questions but then she rebuilt her strategy and played sensibly till the end.
The second game saw Singapore bouncing back in style. Mengyu Yu outplayed Madhurika Patkar (3-0) 13-11, 11-2, 11-6 in straight games to equalise.
In the third match, doubles pair of Mouma Das and Patkar played attacking game throughout to seal the issue 3-1 (11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7) against Mengyu and Yihan Zhou and hand India a 2-1 crucial advantage.
Earlier, India thrashed England 3-0 in the semi-final to enter the gold medal match.
16-year-old Bhaker produced a spectacular performance, setting a new CWG record