Commonwealth Games: Indian Shooters, Weightlifters Take Medal Tally to 22 on Day 5

July 28, 2014

Commonwealth gold

Glasgow, Jul 28: Satish Sivalingam was the best performer of the day for India with his gold-medal winning feat as India took their medal tally to 22 on the fourth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here on Monday.

Young markswoman Shreyasi Singh gave ample display of her potential by winning a silver in the women's double trap event. The shooters have now contributed nine medals in India's overall tally of 20 so far.

Mohammed Asab was the other shooter who provided cheer for the strong Indian contingent by claiming the bronze medal in the men's double trap event at the Barry Buddon Centre at Dundee.

Later in the day, Punam Yadav lifted a total of 202kg to claim a bronze in the women's 63kg category. The 19-year-old (88114) from UP finished third behind Nigeria's Olayuwatoyin Adesanmi and defending champion Obioma Okoli, who lifted 207kg each.

A dominant Satish Sivalingam rewrote the Games Snatch record later enroute to his gold medal winning performance while Ravi Katulu finished second behind him in the men's 77kg weightlifting event at the Commonwealth Games.

With the addition of these medals, India's overall medals tally has swelled to 22 with six gold, nine silver and seven bronze and they continued to maintain their fifth position on the medals table.

England are at the top with a tally of 21-16-16, closely followed by powerhouse Australia (21-15-22), hosts Scotland (11-7-9) and Canada (7-3-6).

However, there was disappointment in store for India's women hockey team as they were blanked 0-3 by world number four New Zealand.

India shot-putter Om Prakash Karhana has qualified for the final with his best throw of 18.98m. He finished eighth in the qualifying.

Meanwhile, M Povamma has qualified for the semifinals of the women's 400m semifinals after clocking 54.01 while Sharadha Narayan also reached the semifinals of the women's 100m with a timing of 11.39s.

Shreyasi shot down a total target of 92 to bag the silver, two shots behind gold winner Charlotte Kerwood of England. Another Englishwoman Rachel Parish won the bronze with 91 points, after a shoot-off with Cynthia Meyer of Canada.

A not-so-impressive first round of 22 points saw Shreyasi trailing at the third spot after the third and penultimate round but the Delhi shooter recovered some lost ground in the final round to win the silver at the Barry Buddon Centre at Dundee near here.

With Kerwood, in whose name the Commonwealth Games record of 106 points (at 2006 Melbourne) stands, struggling in the final round, Shreyasi was in with a chance to go for a shoot-off for the gold but missed the double target twice to settle for the white metal. Shreyasi had rounds of 22, 24, 23, 23.

The other Indian in the fray, 20-year-old Varsha Varman finished fifth with 88 points (22, 19, 24, 23).

In the men's double trap event, the 26-year-old Asab from Meerut shot 26 in the finals to pip Nathan Xuereb of Malta, who managed 24.

Asab was placed fifth in the qualifications while another Indian shooter in the event, Ankur Mittal had to be contend with a fifth-place finish in the finals. Mittal qualified second for the finals.

Punam, who won a bronze in junior Asian Championship early this year, then gave India more reasons to smile by winning bronze after an intriguing fight with Olayuwatoyin Adesanmi and defending champion Obioma Okoli.

The two Nigerian athletes totalled 207kg, five kilos more than the Indian, but was awarded gold as her body weight was one kilo less than the defending champion at 62kg.

Punam's best lifts in Snatch came in third attempt while in Clean and Jerk, her best effort was in the second attempt. After starting with 85kg, Punam ended her Snatch attempts with a final lift of 88kg.

In the Clean and Jerk, the 19-year-old Punam began with 110kg, then improved it to 114kg in the second attempt but her last attempt of 117kg could not materialise.

Another Indian, Vandana Gupta, finished fourth in the same event as she ended with a total of 198kg. Her best lift in Snatch was 91kg in her third attempt and in Clean and Jerk she could manage only 107kh as her two later attempts of 110kg failed.

The Indian women's table tennis team, runners-up in Delhi four years ago, failed to win a medal after losing the bronze play-off to Australia at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

23-year-old Ziyu Zhang starred for Australia by winning her two singles, against the experienced Shamini Kumaresan and Madhurika Patkar respectively. Zhang's come from behind victory in the fourth rubber against Patkar helped Australia seal the tie 3-1.

Patkar and Kumaresan had lost the preceding doubles rubber against Jian Fang Lay and Miao Miao to trail 1-2 in the match.

Zhang gave Australia the early advantage by packing off Kumaresan 11-5 2-11 11-6 11-9 in the opening singles. The chubby-looking Chinese-born paddler used her expansive forehand to good effect and was equally potent with her backhand.

For India, the lone bright spot was Manika Batra's convincing win over Fang Lay, an opponent more than double the Delhi girl's age. The 19-year-old foxed the 41-year-old Australian with smart use of pimples for a 11-5 8-11 11-8 11-7 win.

India's Sajan Prakash finished a disappointing sixth in Heat 5 of men's 100m butterfly event.

Commonwealth Games

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Agencies
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Indian pacer S Sreesanth has slammed England all-rounder Ben Stokes for questioning MS Dhoni's intent during a World Cup match, saying that the former captain will end Stokes' career.

Stokes in his book titled 'On Fire' had questioned Dhoni's intent during India's 31-run defeat at the hands of England in the premier tournament last year.

"For Ben Stokes, I will only say that you should pray that Dhoni does not play against you in the future. Dhoni does not forget things easily," Sreesanth said during a Live session on Helo.

"I wish Stokes all the best for whenever he faces Dhoni again, be it IPL or an England vs India match. You must be earning in millions now, Dhoni Bhai will end your career. Dhoni will strike the ball everywhere and he (Stokes) can never dismiss Dhoni. Before he (Stokes) opens his mouth, he should make sure to wear a helmet," he added.

Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding had also come out in support of Dhoni and said that the wicket-keeper batsman wanted to win the match against England.

"Well, people will write anything in books these days, because people are a lot more free with their opinions and when they are writing books, they need to be making headlines at times," Holding had said on his official YouTube channel.

"...It was not the game that India had to win, but I don't think anyone can say that was a team tactic to lose the game. I watched that game and it appeared to me as if India weren't putting up their 100 percent, but I realised it was not the case when the expression on MS Dhoni's face told me that he desperately wanted to win, so I do not think it was a team decision to not try to win," he had added.

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Agencies
July 20,2020

Vitoria, Jul 20: Lionel Messi won a record seventh top scoring title in the Spanish league after netting twice in Barcelona's 5-0 rout of Alav s in the final round.

Messi ended with 25 goals, four more than Karim Benzema, who did not score in Real Madrid's 2-2 draw at Legan s.

Messi is the first player to finish as the league's top scorer in seven different seasons. He reached the milestone despite missing games because of an injury early in the season. The Argentine's 25 goals came in 33 matches.

Messi was tied with Telmo Zarra with six scoring titles. He has also now equaled Hugo Sanchez's feat of four straight top-scorer trophies.

"Individual achievements are always secondary," Messi said on Sunday.

"I wished it could have come along with the league title."

This is also the third successive season that Messi finished with the most assists 21 in the league.

Ansu Fati, Luis Su rez and Nelson Semedo also scored Sunday for Barcelona, which had already secured second place behind Madrid.

Fati opened the scoring in the 24th minute, Messi added to the lead 10 minutes later and Su rez closed the first-half scoring in the 44th. Semedo got on the board in the 57th and Messi in the 75th to help Barcelona rebound from a 2-1 home loss to Osasuna.

"Today things were different," Messi said.

"The team showed better attitude and commitment. It was an important step forward for us ahead of what's left in the season."

Barcelona now turns its focus to its Aug. 8 home game against Napoli in the round of 16 of the Champions League. The first leg, played before the break, ended 1-1.

Barcelona coach Quique Seti n finished under pressure after the team relinquished a two-point lead over Madrid when the league resumed following the pandemic break. It was four points back before Madrid's match at Legan s.

Barcelona defender Cl ment Lenglet had to be substituted early in the second half because of an apparent muscle injury.

Alav s, sitting in 15th, had already done enough to stay up.

BAR A "B" TEAM

American winger Konrad de la Fuente scored twice as Barcelona's "B" team beat Valladolid B to keep alive its hopes of reaching the second division next season. The victory put Barcelona in the second round of the promotion playoffs.

The 19-year-old De la Fuente, who recently had his contract with Barcelona extended through the 2021-22 season, scored in each half.

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News Network
April 26,2020

New Delhi, Apr 26: The idea of having a full-fledged women's IPL is in a "progression stage" and a World Cup title for India can actually help in turning that into a reality sooner than later, says former captain Anjum Chopra.

Under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian team sailed into the final of the last women's T20 World Cup, but was thrashed by home favourites and defending champions Australia when it mattered the most.

Chopra, one of the country's most decorated women cricketers, said a World Cup title triumph would have brought about a generational shift to the women's game in cricket-mad India.

"Women's IPL in the progression stages. From one game at the start we had four last year in the Women's T20 Challenge, and this time it was supposed to be seven. It has progressed," Chopra said.

"If the women's team had won the World Cup this year, the number of matches would have been more. There is a big difference between winners and runners up."

Chopra had a successful career spanning over 17 years during which she represented India in six World Cups while becoming the first woman cricket to appear in 100 One-day Internationals.

She added, "A victory (in final of last T20 World Cup) would have been a complete generational shift in a much more progressional manner."

Referring to the rapid strides the women's game has made the world over, she praised the International Cricket Council (ICC) for "consciously building it up".

"ICC has bifurcated viewership numbers also very well for Indian audience."

The icing on the cake was a near-packed Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the World Cup final between India and Australia, and that was not lost on Chopra, who is now a respected analyst and sportscaster.

"To have 80,000 people watching the final that's commendable. That definitely a boost," said Chopra, who holds the distinction of leading India to their first ever Test series win.

A World Cup triumph and the "mind set would have gone to different level altogether", she believed.

Asked about the chatter around pay disparity in Indian cricket, her simple message was win more to earn more.

"There is already pay parity in Australia. Because both teams have won the World Cups more than any other nations.

"If you start winning, then I am sure things will be different. It's also about how much you are able to generate as a team.

"I would say sky is the limit for them."

With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing sporting activities to a standstill, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the fate of many big events lined up in the near future.

While the IPL has been put on hold indefinitely, the pandemic has thrown the men's T20 World Cup, scheduled for October-November in Australia, into doubt.

"There has been a suggestion that if we are hosting the World Cup in October, then play the IPL as preparation ground for World Cup."

That is only if the situation improves in the coming times.

"It's difficult to see, to gauge where sport will be after this. For sure it is not going to be where it was before. Even if it opens up tomorrow it couldn't be the same.

"Can sports people can get back to work without worry? We don't know when this is going to be under control."

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