Star marksman Abhinav Bindra stole the limelight by clinching a gold medal while unheralded teenager Malaika Goel bagged a silver as shooters added two more medals to India’s kitty on the second day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here today.
The 31-year-old Bindra kept his nerve to take the honour in his favourite 10 m air rifle event with a final games record score of 205.3 to bring cheers for the Indian contingent.
After Bindra’s swansong appearance, a memorable one in which the star battled nerves in a gripping competition to bag the 10m Air Rifle gold medal, which has eluded him in the previous four attempts, he said that the achievement was enough for him.
“This is my last Commonwealth Games. Five CWG and nine medals, it is enough for me,” Bindra said while speaking to Indian journalists.
“It was a well-earned medal because I work hard and I am happy to have achieved the feat. I got the desired result.”
Asked if Rio 2016 would be his last Olympics, he said, “I will take on thing at a time. I will decide later.”
He joked that after retirement he would take up journalism as career. “Journalism is an easy job, I may become a journalist after my shooting career.”
Bindra said he would now focus to the World Championships to be held in a few months time. “I will relax a bit and then prepare for the World Cup,” said the 31-year-old Bindra who won India’s first individual Olympic medal by winning the 10m Air Rifle event in 2008 Beijing Games.
The 16-year-old Malaika Goel gave India their first shooting medal with a silver in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event while favourite Heena Sidhu fell by the wayside at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre at Dundee.
With the addition of two more medals from the shooting ranges, India’s overall medals tally climbed to 9 after collecting seven medals on the opening day. India were placed fourth on the medals table with a tally of 3 gold, 4 silver and two bronze behind toppers England (18), Australia (15) and Scotland (10).
It was Bindra’s first individual gold medal in the Commonwealth Games. He had won the pairs gold in Manchester (2002), Melbourne (2006) and in front of the home crowd in New Delhi fours years ago.
In the women’s section, Goel shot an aggregate of 197.1 in the finals to finish second and grab her first senior international medal after a close fight for the gold on the opening day of shooting competitions.
Bronze for Santoshi
India's good show in the weightlifting arena continued as young Andhra Pradesh girl Santoshi Matsa grabbed the bronze medal in the women's 53 kg category. This is India's fifth medal from the weightlifting event after winning two gold, a silver and a bronze on the opening day of the event. 20-year-old Santoshi lifted a total of 188 kg in snatch and clean and jerk to get the bronze as 16-year-old Nigerian schoolgirl Chika Amalaha won the gold with a total lift of 196 kg. Veteran Papua and New Guinea lifter Dika Toua, who is a mother of two, took the silver with a total lift of 193 kg.
India's Swati Singh, who was placed third at the end of the snatch event finished fourth with 183 kg. It was second time that Swati missed out on a podium having finished fourth during the last edition in the last edition.
Santoshi tried a lift of 109 kg on the third clean and jerk attempt but failed. The successful attempt wouldn't have ensured anything more than bronze though as both Amalaha and Toua went on to break the Games Record with a lift of 111 kg each in the clean and jerk section.
Swati, on her part, failed on two attempts to lift 103 kg and 106 kg respectively as she had to settle with a total score of 183 kg. Former world number one and a pre-competition favourite Heena Sindhu finished a disappointing seventh after topping the qualifications. She was the second shooter to be eliminated in the eight-women field in the final round.
Indian judokas failed to replicate their opening day performance with only Sunibala Huidrom managing to enter the bronze-medal contest in the women’s 70kg category.
Sunibala faced a tough test in the repechage contest but she managed to prevail over Monika Burgess of Canada in a battle that lasted for three minutes and 58 seconds to make the medal round. She will now fight for the bronze medal with Scotland’s Sally Conway later in the day.
However, it was curtains for Garima Choudhary in the women’s 63kg category after she went down fighting in her repechage round.
Earlier in the day, Sunibala got the better of Australia’s Catherine Arscott in the quarterfinals in another tough four-minute contest, while it took her just 53 seconds to beat Memory Zikhale of Botswana in her round of 16 bout, as she got a couple of Wazaris, which is equivalent to an ‘Ippon’ that finishes a contest.
Garima, who was the only Indian judoka to have qualified for the london Olympics in 2012, lost to K J Yeats-Brown of England in the repechage.
Yeats-Brown won on the basis of two Wazaris. Indian men had a disappointing outing as both Balvinder Singh and V Vikender Singh lost in the round of 32 in 73kg and 81kg, respectively.
In swimming, Sandeep Sejwal became the first Indianswimmer to clear the qualification round and make it to the semifinals of the men’s 100m breaststroke event.
Sejwal finished 12th overall after clocking 1:02.97 seconds in the heat to advance to the next round. A total of 16 swimmers qualified for the semifinal stage of the competition at the Tollcross Swimming Centre. Sejwal came fourth in heat number three but 12th overall in a field of 34 swimmers.
However, India failed to make the main round of men’s 200m freestyle event, as Sajan Prakash finished a lowly 22nd in the qualification.
Indian paddlers continued their rampaging form as the men’s and women’s teams blanked Guyana and Kenya 3-0 respectively in the group stage of the table tennis team competition.
Indian cyclists’ dismal show continued at the Games as they failed to qualify for the finals of both Men’s 4000m Individual pursuit and Women’s 3000m Individual pursuit events.