Glasgow: Apurvi Chandela and Rahi Sanorbat clinched a gold medal each as Indian shooters returned with five more medals on Saturday to swell the country’s medal tally on the third day of competitions at the 20th Commonwealth Games.
Besides Apurvi and Rahi, Ayonika Paul, Prakash Nanjappa and Anisa Sayyed claimed a silver each to accumulate seven medals from shooting so far. India had won one gold and a silver yesterday.
Rahi, 23, and 21-year-old Apurvi were the star performer for India as they bagged the yellow metal in the women’s 25m pistol and 10m air rifle events respectively.
It was an all-Indian affair in the women’s 25m pistol event as Sanorbat beat Anisa in the gold-medal match 8-2 to cap a brilliant second day of shooting competitions in Dundee near here.
Earlier, Rajasthan girl Apurvi earned India its second gold from the shooting range winning the 10m Air Rifle event with a score of 206.7, while compatriot Ayonika Paul boosted the medal tally with a silver.
Prakash Najappa also got a silver in the 10m Air Pistol event, after narrowly missing out on the yellow metal due to a lapse of concentration.
With five more medals, India took their overall medals tally to 15 with five gold, seven silver and three bronze medals and were placed fifth in the medals table.
England are at top with 40 medals, including 16 gold.
Australia have 43 medals but are placed second as they have 13 gold. Hosts Scotland are third with 22 medals out which nine are of the yellow metal. Canada have seven gold and a total of 15 medals.
Repacholi won the gold with a total of 199.5 while Prakash scored 198.2. England’s 60-year-old Michel Gault got the bronze.
Sanorbat, who had lost to Sayyed in the gold medal match at Delhi 2010 four years ago, said: “In the last Commonwealth Games she (Sayyed) had the gold and I got silver, so this time it’s the other way around and it’s even nicer that both the medals went to India.
“The approach of India to shooting has changed – we have Olympic medals as well as Commonwealth medals. We train in better venues, have good coaches and I think that reflects in our shooting,” she added.
In Hockey, India dished out a dominating performance to notch up a 6-2 victory over hosts Scotland in a Pool A match.
Ranked ninth in the world, India went on a goal-spree as they rode on the scores from Gurbaj Singh (6th minute), Raghunath Ramachandra (22nd, 44th), Rupinder Singh (36th, 49th) and Gurwinder Chandi (40th) at the National Hockey Centre here.
Kenny Bain (56th) and Nicholas Parkes (68th) were the goalscorer for Scotland.
After the match, Rupinder said: “It feels good to score two goals for India today. It was good game. Everyone played well. We have to learn what mistakes we made.” (PTI)