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
January 10,2020

Karachi, Jan 10: Former Pakistan batsman and current U-19 head coach Ejaz Ahmed feels that his side can beat defending champions and arch-rivals India in the forthcoming ICC Youth World Cup beginning in South Africa on January 17.

"India has a very good cricket system and it is organized but I know that we have more passion than them when we play against each other and that is how we also beat them in the semi-finals of the recent Asian Emerging Nations Cup," Ejaz said.

Ejaz, who has played 60 Test and 250 ODIs, was head coach of the Pakistan Emerging side which beat India before eventually winning the title in Bangladesh last year.

"Even in the past, we beat India because of our greater passion and this time also I know the passion of our players will prevail over them although they have a very strong outfit," he added.

The 51-year-old Ejaz, however, said at the end of the day it would be all about how a team plays on that particular day.

"It is the same in the World Cup it does not matter which team is number one or defending champions what will matter is how a team plays on a given day. I personally feel our team is well balanced," he said.

Ejaz did not believe that India would get advantage of having played a four-nation tournament with South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe in South Africa before the World Cup.

"Our players have also trained hard in Lahore and we have played around 11 matches. We will also reach South Africa nine days before the World Cup and we have some practice games and I think our preparations are also very good for the tournament," he said.

The former batsman also said the absence of fast bowler Naseem Shah will not impact much on the team's performance. Naseem was withdrawn from the Pakistan U-19 squad after he played for the senior team in three Test matches against Australia and Sri Lanka.

"Look there was no controversy at all. The way we now see things is that you can't expect a MBA to go and take BA exams. That is how we look at Naseem Shah, he has made the grade for Pakistan and now he should be performing for the senior team," said the head coach.

"We have a couple of exciting young talent in the ranks. I expect Rohail and Haider to play for the senior team in two to three year's time, they are that good."

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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
June 10,2020

New Delhi, Jun 10: Former India skipper Rahul Dravid has praised the batting of MS Dhoni during the backend of a match, saying that the wicket-keeper often played during the period as if the result did not really matter to him.

Dravid also said that in pressure-cooker situations, not worrying about consequences can help players bring out the best in themselves.

"You watch MS Dhoni play during the backend of a match when he was at his best, you always felt like that he is doing something really important to him but he is playing it like the result does not really matter to him," Dravid told Sanjay Manjrekar during a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I think you need to have that or you need to train for it. It is a skill that I never had. The consequences of any decision mattered to me. It would be interesting to ask MS Dhoni that is this something that has come naturally to him or did he work on this during his career," he added.

Dhoni made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2004, but he truly arrived in the series against Pakistan in 2005 when he scored 148 runs in the second ODI of the six-match series at Vishakapatnam.

He is the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy). Under his leadership, India also managed to attain the number one ranking in Test cricket.

He first led an inexperienced Indian side to the T20 World Cup triumph in 2007. He then took over ODI captaincy, but he had to wait for leading the Test side as Anil Kumble was doing the duties in the longest format.

Over his career, Dhoni has been reowned for his finishing skills and he is often viewed as the best finisher that the game has ever seen.

In December 2014, Dhoni announced his retirement from the longest format of the game.

Then in 2017, Dhoni handed over the captaincy reins to Virat Kohli in the 50-over format.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 in the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament has been suspended indefinitely as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.

Thirty-eight-year-old Dhoni has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni recently had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place in the list of BCCI's centrally contracted players from October 2019 to September 2020.

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