GOLDEN DAY FOR INDIA
The legend of M C Mary Kom (48kg) grew larger as she became the first Indian woman boxer to claim a Commonwealth Games gold, joined by Gaurav Solanki (52kg) in the top-finishers’ group after the first set of finals evn as India won seven gold medals here on Saturday .
The star of the day was without a shred of doubt Mary Kom — a 35-year-old five-time world champion and Olympic bronzemedallist. She was competing in her debut Commonwealth Games, also perhaps her last, and made it a memorable one with yet another dominating performance to claim an unanimous verdict of 5-0 over Northern Ireland’s Kristina O’Hara in the final. “I am so glad to have made history again, it is a special feeling to win something that is a milestone medal. I am just so glad,” a beaming Mary Kom said after the victory.
In the men’s competition, Solanki provided the golden touch, pulling it off 4-1 over Northern Ireland’s Brendan Irvine. The Indian lost the third round but did just enough in the first two to walk away with a gold medal on debut at the Games.
Later, Indian boxer Vikas Krishan defeated Dieudonne Wilfried Seyi Ntsengue of Cameroon in the 75kg category final at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Saturday. Vikas won by a 5:0 unanimous verdict against Ntsengue in a close contest which saw both the boxers claiming to have won the bout before the referee’s verdict. It was Vikas’ first medal at the CWG. Each of the five judges awarded 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28 points in favour of Vikas.
Indian paddler Manika Batra clinched a gold medal in the women’s singles category .Manika outplayed Mengyu Yu of Singapore 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 112, 11-7) to clinch the gold medal. This is India’s first ever gold in the women’s singles event at the CWG.
Indian wrestlers did India proud as Sumit Malik won the 125 kilogram freestyle title while Vinesh Phogat took women’s 50kg gold. Sumit won all his four bouts in the Nordic (round robin) format to emerge champion. Korey Jarvis of Canada got the silver while Pakistan’s Tayab Raza took the bronze.
Among the women, Vinesh won gold in the 50kg competition as she ended at the top of the standings at the end of the Nordic format. Vinesh defeated Miesinnei Genesis of Nigeria, Rupinder Kaur of Australia and Canada’s Jessica MacDonald.
Neeraj Chopra became India’s first javelin champion at the Commonwealth Games and joined the country’s small band of athletics gold medallists with a mighty throw of 86.47m.
The 20-year-old said staying relaxed was the key after he won by nearly four metres from Australia’s Hamish Peacock, after Kenya’s ex-world champion Julius Yego failed to make the final. With his surprise win, Chopra becomes only the third Indian man to win athletics gold at the Commonwealths, after Milkha “Flying Sikh” Singh in 1958 and Vikas Gowda in 2014. —