A record-smashing Mirabai Chanu and a perseverant P Gururaja claimed gold and silver respectively as weightlifters lived up to the pre-event hype by delivering opening-day medals for India while star badminton players added to the cheer by making a winning start in the 21st Commonwealth Games, here.
Chanu smashed the Games records in 48kg category snatch, clean and jerk and overall en route her gold-medal winning performance, which fetched her a thunderous applause from the Australian fans, who queued up to take her autograph after the medal ceremony. Chanu managed to lift 196kg (86kg+110kg) in a remarkable effort.
"I was not expecting to break records but I certainly wanted to break them when I came here. I can't put in words, how it feels right now," an exhausted but jubilant Chanu said.
CWG gold medallist Mirabai Chanu had showed her weightlifting prowess even as a 12 year old when she would comfortably lift more firewoods than her elder brother.
The youngest among six siblings, Mirabai would go to collect firewoods from a nearby hill with her brother Saikhom Sanatomba Meitei, who is four years elder to her.
"One day I could not lift the bundle of firewoods but Mira easily lifted it and took it our home. She was about 12-year-old then," Sanatomba said, amid the noise of firecrackers in celebration of Mirabai's success at her home.
"She always has the passion to achieve big. She never put her under pressure and is always ice-cool, something that was evident in her flawless lift." he added.
easy day 1 in tt
Indian paddlers started their campaign with comprehensive wins in all their group matches in the team event of the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.
The men's team got the better of Northern Ireland and Trinidad and Tobago thrashing them both 3-0 while the women's team defeated Sri lanka and Wales 3-0, 3-1 respectively.
In the second match of the men's team against Northern Ireland World No 46 Gnanasekaran Sathiyan gave India the early lead crushing Ashley Robinson 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 in the first singles before India's most experienced paddler, Sharath Kamal, outclassed Paul McCreery in straight sets 11-6, 11-8, 11-4.
The duo of Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai then beat the pairing of Zak Wilson and McCreery 11-2, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7 giving India their second victory of the day.
Earlier, in the men's opening match against Trinidad and Tobago Anthony Amalraj struggled a little in the first singles but managed to beat Dexter St louis 11-5, 3-11, 11-2, 14-12 before the in-form Sathiyan doubled India's lead thrashing Aaron Wilson 11-5, 11-5, 11-4.
Sathiyan and Desai then paired together to beat the pairing of Wilson and Yuvraaj Dookram 11-9, 11-4, 11-4 making it 3-0 in favour of the Indians.
In the women's tie, India thrashed Sri lanka 3-0. Manika Batra hardly broke a sweat in her 11-3, 11-5, 11-3 victory over Erandi Warusawithana in the first singles before Sutirtha Mukherjee made it 2-0 up for India with an easy 11-5, 11-8, 11-4 win over Ishara Manikku Badu.
Sutirtha then paired with Pooja Sahasrabudhe in the doubles to notch up a 11-6, 11-7, 11-3 win against the Sri lankan duo of Hansani Kapugeekiyana and Ishara Manikku Badu to wrap up the tie in style.
In the second women's group stage match against Wales, Manika beat Charlotte Carey 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-4 before Mouma Das gave India a 2-0 lead by defeating Chloe Thomas 12-10, 11-7, 11-7.
The pairing of Madhurika Patkar and Das suffered the only defeat of the day losing to the pairing of Charlotte Carey and Anna Hursey 8-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-13. But Patkar got back to business ending the tie by getting the better of Chloe Thomas 11-3, 11-4, 12-10 in the last singles match and giving India 3-1 win over Wales.
Mixed day in squash
It was a mixed day for India in the squash events as Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal and Vikram Malhotra advanced to the round-of-16 while Saurav Ghoshal and Harinder Pal Sandhu suffered heartbreaking losses at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.
In women's singles category, Chinappa outplayed lynette Vai of Papua New Guinea 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-2) in 13 minutes while Dipika Pallikal overpowered Charlotte Knaggs of Trinidad and Tobago 3-0.
In the men's singles category, it was a cakewalk for Malhotra, who outplayed Manda Chilambwe of Zambia 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-2) in the round-of-64, and he only took 13 minute to beat Xavier Koenig of Mauritius 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-0).
While in a marathon match, Ghoshal wrapped up the first two games comfortably 11-5, 11-7. But lost narrowly in the next two (8-11, 9-11).
In the decider, it all boiled down to the last point and the Jamaican player held his nerves and went on to clinch the issue.
Sandhu, who played handsomely in the round-of-64 match in which he outplayed Cameron Stafford of Cayman Islands 3-1, lost 0-3 (8-11, 6-11,1-11) in the round-of-32 to Ivan Yuen Malaysia to end his run at the prestigious meet.
Manoj enter in R-16
Star boxer Manoj Kumar advanced to the round of 16 in men's boxing 69 kilogram category after convincingly thrashing Osita Umeh of Nigeria 5-0 by unanimous verdict at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.
The 2010 CWG gold medallist dominated from the start, using the technique of keeping his guard down, and kept drawing Umeh towards himself at the Oxenford Studios here.
The first round witnessed Manoj using a few heavy right arm jabs to which the 19-year-old Nigerian hardly had any reply and it seemed like the 31-year-old Indian isn't far from advancing to the next round.
Umeh started the second round with some good counter-punching, but Manoj used all his experience to block and keep his defence up.
women's hockey team lose
India's hockey campaign was off to a disappointing start at the Commonwealth Games after the country's women's team was upstaged 2-3 by a lower-ranked Wales in a Group A clash, here on Thursday.
The World No 10 Indian team trailed the first 30 minutes of the match, scored a couple of goals in the third period to draw level before conceding one in the dying minutes of the match to end up on the losing side against their World No 26 rivals.
lisa Daley (7th minute), Sian French (26th minute) and Natasha Marke-Jones (57th minute) did the scoring for Wales, while skipper Rani Rampal (34th minute) and Nikki Pradhan (41st minute) put India on the scoresheet.