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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News Network
April 27,2020

Mumbai, Apr 27: The pressure to replace iconic Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps was "immense" due to high expectations from fans says K L Rahul, who has been doing the wicket-keeping duty for India in the limited overs format for some time now.

Dhoni quit Test cricket in 2014 and has not played for India in the limited overs format since last year's ODI World Cup in England.

Rahul kept the wickets in the limited overs series against Australia in January this year and also during the team's tour to New Zealand.

"I was nervous when I was doing it for India because of the crowd pressure. If you fumble, people feel that you cannot replace MS Dhoni. The pressure of replacing a legendary wicket-keeper like MSD was immense as it involved people accepting someone else behind the stumps," Rahul told Star Sports on its show 'Cricket Connected'.

Rahul, who has played 32 ODIs and 42 T20Is, said keeping the wickets is not alien to him since he dons the gloves during the Indian Premier League (IPL) and also when he plays for his Ranji side Karnataka.

"People who follow cricket know that I haven't been away from wicket-keeping for too long as I donned the gloves in the IPL and every time I played for Karnataka," the 28-year-old said.

"I am always in touch with wicket-keeping but am also somebody who is more than willing to take up the role if the team needs me to," he stressed.

Dhoni's career is a matter of intense speculation. Many former players feel that it won't be easy for Dhoni to make it to the national squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia. 

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News Network
April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri on Wednesday urged people to beat coronavirus by staying at home and by maintaining social distancing. He termed the virus 'mother of all World Cups' and asked people to combat this disease together and win the World Cup of humanity.

Taking to Twitter, Shastri shared a video post where he cited cricket examples to aware people about the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. "As I would know, sports teaches you life lessons that can be applied to just about anything you want to pursue in rest of your life.

Today the COVID-19 has put us in a situation where we got our backs to the wall. To combat this coronavirus is like chasing a World Cup where you give your everything in trying to win it. What's staring you at the face is no ordinary World Cup. This is the mother of all World Cups where not just eleven are playing but 1.4 billion are in the playing arena and competing. Guys we can win this. For that, we have to observe the basics. You have got your Prime Minister leading from the front ahead of the curve like other countries have farmed out," Shastri said.

"You have to obey the orders that come from the top: be it centre, state or the frontline workers who are risking their lives. Two orders that stand out: staying home and maintaining social distancing. It is not easy but to win the game you got to go through the pain to break the chain and see the gain. Come on, guys! let's do it together. Let us get out there in a bruit force of 1.4 billion and beat this corona and get your hands on the World Cup of humanity. Let's do it," he added.

With 1,076 new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 11,439, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

Out of the total tally, 9,756 cases are active while 1,306 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated. With 38 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rises to 377.

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News Network
May 8,2020

New Delhi, May 8: India skipper Virat Kohli believes cricket in empty stadiums is a real possibility in post COVID-19 world and though it is unlikely to have a bearing on the intensity of players, he feels the magic would certainly go missing.

Cricket Boards across the globe are exploring the option of resuming the sport in empty stadiums. There is speculation that fans could be kept away from stadiums in a bid to salvage the T20 World Cup in Australia, which is currently under threat due to the global health crisis.

"It's quite a possible situation, it might happen, I honestly don't know how everyone is going to take that because we all are used to playing in front of so many passionate fans," Kohli said in Star Sports' show 'Cricket Connected'.

"I know it will be played at a very good intensity but that feeling of the crowd connecting with the players and the tension of the game where everyone goes through it in the stadium, those emotions are very difficult to recreate," he added.

Kohli said the many moments which are created because of the passion brought in by fans, would be missing.

"Things will still go on, but I doubt that one will feel that magic happening inside because of the atmosphere that was created.

"We will play sports how it is supposed to be played, but those magical moments will be difficult to come by," he said.

Cricketers such as Ben Stokes, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Pat Cummins have backed the idea of playing behind closed doors.

However, legendary Australian Allan Border has said it would defy belief to host a World Cup without spectators.

Another Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and some other cricketers have also expressed similar sentiments.

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