Commonwealth Games 2010 Day 7: India regains 2nd spot with splendid all-round display

By Victor DSouza, Doha
Various sources
Bellevision Media Network

Monday, 11 October 2010: It has been a Super Sunday for India as it produced yet another eye-catching all-round display to scoop up a sackful of medals and surge past England to the second spot in the medals rostrum at the Commonwealth Games. The hosts raked up five gold medals and as many silver and bronze medals from wrestling, archery, shooting, athletics and tennis on another very fruitful day of competitions. Late in the evening the men’s hockey squad routed arch-foes Pakistan 7-4 in a do-or-die pool match to enter the semi finals in front of a packed crowd.

 

Ranchi-born teenage shooter Deepika Kumari set the tone with a gold in the women’s individual recurve at the archery range. Fellow-archer Rahul Banerjee (men’s individual recurve), Harpreet Singh (men’s 25m centre fire pistol) and world freestyle wrestling champion Sushil Kumar (66kg) followed suit before Somdev Devvarman lived up to his billing as the top seed by winning the men’s singles gold. The silverware were provided earlier by Vijay Kumar (centre fire pistol) and freestyle grapplers Anuj Kumar (84kg) and Joginder Kumar (120kg) and was boosted in the evening by field athletes Vikas Gowda (men’s discus) and Malliakal Prajusha (women’s long jump).

 

The 14 medals bagged on Sunday increased the country’s haul to an impressive 29-22-22, three gold medals clear of third-placed England who were second last night. India were also just one gold medal shy of equalling their best-ever harvest of 30 at the Manchester Games in 2002 when three gold medals were awarded for each weight class, a practice that has been discontinued since. England tallied 26-45-32 while Australia are lying far ahead in the top spot by grabbing 61 gold, 38 silver and 37 bronze.

 

 

The day commenced in splendid fashion with 17-year-old Deepika Kumari stunning 2004 Athens Olympics bronze medalist Alison James Williamson 6-0, by showing amazing precision and steady nerves in windy conditions to win her second recurve gold of the Games. The earlier one was in the team event. Harpreet Singh clinched the 25m centre fire pistol gold, archer Rahul Banerjee grabbed the men’s individual recurve gold and world wrestling champion Sushil Kumar won the 66kg title by destroying all his rivals to make it another memorable day for India.

 

Vijay Kumar stood second behind Harpreet, freestyle wrestler Anuj Kumar also finished runner-up in men’s 84 kg and then discus thrower Gowda, a perennenial underachiever at the international level, and woman long jumper Malliakal Prajusha also secured silver medals. Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu secured a bronze while Jayanta Talukdar finished third behind Banerjee in the men’s recurve event.

 

Indian world champion Sushil Kumar delighted an expectant home crowd with a Gold in the freestyle wrestling 66kg. India’s latest posterboy, one of the nation’s best medal hopes after winning the world championships in Moscow last month, treated his fans to an emphatic victory over South African Heinrich Barnes in the final. "You have no idea with all the expectations riding on me and competing in my home country and winning gold it is the best feeling I ever had," he said. "This gold is the result of my audience’s love and my own determination."

 

 

 

Somdev Devvarman became the first Commonwealth Games men’s singles champion cruising to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Greg Jones of Australia. The top seed’s win had local fans on their feet, 24 hours after the despair of seeing Indian glamour girl Sania Mirza lose the women’s singles final in a deciding tie-break to Anastasia Rodionova of Australia. Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi beat compatriots Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesh to secure the women’s doubles bronze in tennis and swell India’s medal kitty.

 

Dola Banerjee finished third in women’s recurve and grappler Anil Kumar got the bronze in 55kg freestyle. Vijender Singh, the pin-up boy of Indian boxing floored his first round rival Elias Nashivela of Namibia. Vijender Singh uncorked a left hook early in the bout to score an intimidating knock-out win and assure himself of a second successive Games medal. To bring more cheers, Asian silver-medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg), Asian bronze medalist Manoj Kumar (64kg) and nine-time national champion Dilbag Singh (69kg) also made the semis and assured the country of a medal. The four boxers joined Amandeep Singh (49kg) and Suranjoy Singh (52kg), who won their quarterfinal bouts on Saturday, in the last four.

 

 The latest medals tally at the end of day 7:

 

 

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Australia	61	38	37	136
India	29	22	22	73
England	26	45	32	103
Canada	22	12	25	59
South Africa	11	11	9	31
Nigeria	8	7	11	26
Malaysia	6	7	7	20
Kenya	6	4	4	14
Singapore	5	5	6	16
Samoa	3	0	1	4