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India's shooters stole the limelight on second day of the 18th Commonwealth Games as they brought in an impressive haul of three gold and one silver in five events. That took India's total tally to four gold and three silver after two days.
The Indian badminton team and men's table tennis team also did well, assuring themselves places in the quarter finals.
Day's highlights
Other events
India drew with Malaysia in men's hockey.
Pun Bahadur unlucky to lose to Australia's Alan Todd Kidd in 64 kg category.
Boxers Harpreet Singh (91 kg) and Vijender Singh (69 kg) move up.
Women's table tennis team wins two matches, lose one.
SHOOTING
The shooters got India off to a fantastic start, winning three gold and one silver medal in four events in the morning session at the Melbourne International Shooting Club. India is looking positively at yet another medal, as the trap pair shared lead at the midway stage of the event at Lillydale Range.
The Indian women shooters picked two and the men one gold and a silver. All medals came from pairs events.
Gagan Narang (598) and Abhinav Bindra (591) won the men's 10m Air Rifle Pairs, while Saroja Kumari Jhuthu (574) and Sushma Rana (565) added the women's 25m Pistol gold to the kitty. Then Avneet Kaur Sidhu (396/ 400) and Tejaswini Sawant (395/ 400) grabbed the gold in the women's 10m Air Rifle event. Samaresh Jung (547/ 600) paired with Vivek Singh (535/ 600) and they finished second in the men's 50m Pistol pairs, an event the same duo had won in 2002.
Narang shot a personal best of 598 and teamed with Bindra to better the existing men's 10m Air Rifle Pairs record. The pair broke the existing Games record by a five points. The previous record of 1184 was set by Bindra and Sameer Ambekar, when they won the gold in Manchester in 2002.
Saroja Kumari (574) and Sushma Rana (565), sister of ace pistol shooter Japsal Rana, got India another gold in women's 25m Pistol Pairs.
Samaresh Jung and Vivek Singh took silver in men's 50m Pistol Pairs. The pair was the defending champion in the event, having won in Manchester four years ago. It was extremely windy, which to some extent explained the low scores. Jung shot 547 out of 600, his best round being a 93, which he logged thrice.
Avneet Kaur Sidhu (396) and Tejaswini Sawant (395) gave India a third gold, when they registered the two best scores of the day. Their 791 was below the Games record of 795, held by Anjali Bhagwat and Suma Shirur, but was ten more than second-placed Canadians Monica Fyfe and Cynthia Hamulas. The bronze went to Singapore's Vanessa Yong Yu and Jingna Zhang, who also aggregated 781 but lost out on countback.
Meanwhile, midway through the men's Trap Pairs, Manavjit Singh and Mansher Singh were tied for lead after 50 shots each, with Manvjit (48) missing just two birds, both in second round. They were tied with Australia at 93. Two more rounds of 50 each remain.
Narang, 23, making his debut in the Commonwealth Games, had four perfect rounds of 100 each and totalled 598. Bindra totalled 591 and had just one perfect round of 100. But with both the Indians looking in good form, medals look a certainty in the individual event, too.
Results:
Men's 10m Air Pistol Pairs
1. Abhinav Bindra (591) and Gagan Narang (598) (India) 1189
2. Md Asif Hossain Khan (594) / Anjan Kumer Singha (587) (Bangladesh) 1181
3. Ong Jun Hong (584) and Jin Zhang (593) (Singapore) 1177
Men's 50m Pistol Pairs
1. David Moore (537) and Daniel Repacholi (549) (Australia) 1086
2. Samaresh Jung (547) and Vivek Singh (535) (India) 1082
3. Nick Baxter (563) and Mick Gault (548) (England) 1078
Men's Trap Pairs
1. Adam Vella (95) and Michael Diamond (95) (Australia) 189
2. Tye Warner Bietz and Kirk Reynolds (Canada) 185
3. Charles Boyles and David Robert Walton (Isle of Mann) 183
4. Manavjit Singh (93) and Mansher Singh (90) (India) 183
* India lost a medal on countback
Women's 25m Pistol Pairs
1. Saroja Kumari (574) and Sushma Rana (566) (India) 1140
2. Pamela McKenzie (565) and Lalita Yauhleuskaya (569) (Australia) 1134
3. Avianna Chao (556) and Kim Eagles (574) (Singapore) 1130
Women's 10m Air Rifle Pairs
1. Tejaswini Sawant (395) and Avneet Kaur Sidhu (396) (India) 791
2. Monica Fyfe (391) and Cynthia Hamulas (390) (Canada) 781
3. Vanessa Yong Yu Zhen (390) and Jingna Zhang (391) (Singapore) 781
BADMINTON
India won both matches in the league and play England in the last match on Saturday. The team is assured of a quarter-final berth, as the top two qualify for the last eight stage.
India beat Seychelles 5-0
Anup Sridhar beat Steve Hansley Malcouzane 21-8, 21-5; Saina Nehwal beat Cynthia Denise Course 21-3, 21-5; Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas beat Malcouzane/ GW Cupidon 21-7, 21-12; Jwala Gutta/ Shruti Kurain beat Course/ Juliette Ah Wan 21-12, 21-14; Diju Valiyaveeti/ Jwala Gutta beat Cupidon/ Ah Wan 21-8, 21-10.
BOXING
Preliminaries
64 kg: Som Bahadur Pun lost to Allan Todd Kidd (Aust) Points
69 kg: Vijender Singh beat Poleti Seipua (Samoa) RSC
91 kg: Harpreet Singh beat Sean Santana (South Africa) RSC
HOCKEY MEN
India drew with Malaysia 1-1 (half time 0-1)
Malaysia took 1-0 lead trough a penalty-stroke conversion by Muhamad Amin Rahim in the 25th minute.
India equalised in the 44th minute through Sandeep Singh, who converted a penalty-corner.
India's next match is against Pakistan at 3.30 pm (1000 IST) on Saturday.
SWIMMING
Heats: Indians failed to qualify
Men's 100m breaststoke: Puneet Rana (1:06.51) placed fifth in the heats.
Women's 100m backstroke: Shikha Tandon (1:08.52) placed sixth in the heats.
EAD 50m: Kanchanmala Pande 42.40s placed sixth in the heats.
TABLE TENNIS
MEN'S TEAM EVENT: India topped the pool having won all their four league matches and entered the quarter-finals, where they will be seeded fourth. The top four seeds for the quarter-finals are Singapore, Nigeria, England and India in that order.
The quarter-final draw will be held on Saturday.
India won two matches on Thursday, against Kiribati and St. Vincent and Grenada, and two on Friday, against Northern Ireland and Australia.
India beat Northern Ireland 3-0: Soumyadeep Roy beat Jason Sugrue 11-6, 11-2, 11-6; Sharath Kamal beat Jonathan Cowan 12-10, 11-7, 11-6; Subhajit Saha beat Andrew Dennison 11-8, 11-4, 11-3.
India beat Australia 3-0: Soumyadeep Roy beat William Henzel 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 12-10; Sharath Kamal beat Brett Clarke 11-3, 11-8, 11-9; Subhajit Saha beat Trevor Brown 11-5, 11-9, 11-7.
WOMEN'S TEAM EVENT: The Indian women won one match against Wales and lost one against Malaysia on Friday. They won one match against Fiji on Thursday. India play Mauritius in their last league match.
India beat Wales 3-1: Poulomi Ghatak beat Bethan Daunton 11-9, 11-8, 2-11, 10-12, 11-9; Mouma Das beat Naomi Owen 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7; Nandita Saha lost to Siwan Davies 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 5-11; Poulomi Ghatak beat Naomi Owen 14-112, 8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7.
India lost to Malaysia 0-3: Mouma Das lost to Lee Wei beh 12-14, 4-11, 11-9, 4-11; Poulomo Ghatak lost to Sock Khim Ng 9-11, 14-16, 8-11; Nandita Saha lost to Soo Jiin Chiu 9-11, 3-11, 12-14.
WEIGHTLIFTING: MEN'S 62 KG
1. Chintana Vidange (SRL) Snatch 118 C & J 153 Total 271
2. Arun Murugesan (IND) Snatch 121 C & J 150 Total 271
3. Abdul Rashid Roswadi Bin (MAS) Snatch 120 C & J 141 Total 261