India bagged two more gold medals on Day 5 of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: a historic one in Lawn Bowls before the men's table tennis team successfully defended the crown it won at the Gold Coast Games in 2018.
Vikas Thakur also won silver in the men’s 96kg weightlifting, the eighth medal in the discipline, as India held on to sixth place in the medals tally with five gold, four silver and three bronze thus far.
Here's how India's athletes fared on Tuesday, Day 5 at the Games.
Lawn Bowls:
Lovely Choubey, Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey struck gold, India’s fourth at the Games, in the women’s Fours Lawn Bowls competition, beating South Africa 17-10 in the gold medal match.
It was not only the first-ever gold, but also the country's first medal in the sport.
However, it was not easy for the Indian quartet. They saw an 8-2 lead disappear in a jiffy as the South Africans stage a strong comeback to edge ahead 8-10 after the completion of 10 ends.
With five more ends remaining, India staged a golden comeback of their own and pulled-off a nine-point streak without reply to make history.
Table Tennis:
India was up against Singapore in the men’s team final. First up were Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai against Yong Quek and Yew Pang in the doubles rubber. The Indian pair beat the Singaporeans 13-11, 11-7, 11-5, before Zhe Yu Chew drew parity with a hard-fought win over veteran Sharath Kamal 11-7, 12-14, 11-3, 11-9.
Sathiyan put India back in the lead with a similar four-game 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4 victory over Yew in the second singles.
Harmeet Desai then clinched victory with a clinical 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 demolition of Zhe as India successfully defend their crown in style.
Weightlifting:
With seven medals, including three gold under their belt, India’s weightlifters are raising hopes every time they step out on the field of play. On Tuesday, it was Vikas Thakur, in the men’s 96kg category, who won silver with a total lift of 346kg.
He lifted a best of 155kg in snatch and 191 in clean and jerk but finished well behind Samoan heavyweight Don Opeloge, who smashed the Games record with a massive 381kg lift.
Earlier, Punam Yadav, in the women’s 76kg, registered a no-lift in the clean and jerk and did not make the board as a result, while three failed lifts cost weightlifter Usha Bannur dearly as she finished a poor sixth in the women's 87kg event.
Boxing:
Rohit Tokas (67kgs) outpunched Ghana’s Alfred Kotey in a Round of 16 bout for a unanimous 5-0 verdict to book a berth in the quarter-finals.
Track and Field:
India tasted immediate success, Murali Sreeshankar emerging the leading men’s long jumper of the day with a best leap of 8.05m.
Teammate Muhammad Anees Yahiya also qualified with a 7.68m jump to make it two Indians in the men’s Long Jump final.
Manpreet Kaur also qualified in the women’s Shot Put with a throw of 16.78m, finishing fourth in her qualifying group.
There was disappointment for Dutee Chand in the women’s 100 metres heat. She clocked 11.55 seconds, finishing fourth, and bowed out of contention.
Discus throwers Seema Punia and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon also disappointed, placing fifth and eight respectively. The 39-year-old Punia, who won silver in the 2006, 2014 and 2018 editions and bronze at the Delhi Games in 2010, produced a best throw of 55.92m in her second attempt.
Dhillon, won a bronze in the last edition in Gold Coast in 2018, could only come up with 53.51m in her sixth and final attempt.
Hockey:
The Indian women’s hockey squad suffered its first defeat of the campaign, going down to hosts England 1-3 in their third group game.
They had earlier beaten Ghana and Wales.
Hannah Martin, Tess Howard and Giselle Ansley scored for the home side as Vandana Katariya pulled one back for India in the fourth quarter of the game.
Swimming:
Srihari Nataraj qualified as the first reserve in the men’s 200m backstroke, finishing his heat in third place with a timing of 2.00.84 seconds.
Advait Page and Kushagra Rawat also qualified from their respective men’s 1500m freestyle heats, the former clocking 15.39.25s in his heat and the latter 15.47.77, as both registered identical fourth place finishes.
Squash:
Sunayna Kuruvila registered a fluent win in the first women’s singles Plate semi-final. She steamrolled Pakistan’s Faiza Zafar 11-2, 11-4, 11-5.
However, Saurav Ghosal lost in the men’s singles semi-finals to former world No. 1 and current British Open champion Paul Coll of New Zealand 9-11, 4-11, 1-11.
