Glasgow: Indian wrestlers continued to excel winning four silver and a bronze medal while the boxers, led by young Pinki Jangra and World No. 3 L Devendro Singh, assured themselves of at least four podium finishes on seventh day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here on Wednesday.
It was a far cry from Tuesday’s three-gold burst but was still a creditable performance, as the wrestlers swelled their overall tally in the sport to 10 in the Games.
As many as four Indians entered the final and one made it to the bronze medal round through repechage but none could win a gold.
There were high expectations from the grapplers after India won three gold, one silver and one bronze on Tuesday but they could not replicate that showing.
Satyawart Kadian (men’s 97kg freestyle), Bajrang (men’s 61kg), Lalita Sehrawat (women’s 53kg) and Sakshi Malik (women’s 58kg) won a silver each while Navjot Kaur bagged a bronze in women’s 69kg.
In boxing, experienced Laishram Sarita Devi and Jangra assured reached the semifinals of the women’s light (57-60kg) and 51kg respectively.
The 32-year-old from Manipur came from behind to outsmart Charlene Jones of Wales 3-1 in a hard-fought quarterfinal bout. She will next take on Mozambique’s Maria Machongua in the semifinals on Friday.
Pinki, who had beaten Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom in the national trials to make it to the Indian CWG team, outclassed her Papua New Guinea opponent Jacquiline Wangi in a unanimous 3-0 decision by the judges in the semifinal bout.
Devendro outclassed Aqeel Ahmed of Scotland 3-0.
In men’s 69kg division, young Indian boxer Mandeep Jangra also assured himself of a bronze in his debut Commonwealth Games by advancing to the semifinals after his opponent failed the medical test ahead of their quarterfinal bout.
Placed sixth in the overall standings, India’s medals tally now stands at 41 with 10 gold, 19 silver and 12 bronze.
India have so far won a total of three gold, five silver and two bronze from wrestling.
The best Indian who looked like winning a gold was Satyawart Kadian in men’s 97kg freestyle but the remaining three finalists came a cropper in the bout that mattered the most.
Kadian led 2-0 on technical points against Indian origin Canadian Arjun Gill in the first period of three minutes but squandered it as his opponent came back strongly in the second period to run away with the gold, much to the huge disappointment of the Indian camp who sat all day long in search of a gold.
The final bout ended in a tense situation as the scoreboard showed both wrestlers tied 4-4 on technical points but the judges awarded the gold to Gill as he won the last point from the bout.
Jangra, the Asian Championships silver-medallist, who has won two rounds so far in the event, will now be up against the winner of the clash between Canadian Custio Clayton and Northern Ireland’s Steven Donnelly.
The 21-year-old, a protege of former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Akhil Kumar, was declared the winner after his rival, Daniel Lewis of Australia, failed to get the doctor’s clearance to fight due to a cut above his eye sustained during the pre-quarterfinals.
In another quarterfinals of men’s 91Kg category, India’s Amritpreet Singh suffered a 0-3 loss to Stephen Lavelle of Scotland.
In the women’s light (57-60kg) quarterfinals, Sarita was lagging behind after the first round as Jones started the proceeding with a perfect 10 from each of the three judges.
But the Indian soon got her act together as she outwitted the Wales pugilist 30-27 in the second, before edging her out by an identical margin of 29-28 in the third and fourth rounds to bring joy to the Indian camp.
In athletics, Vikas Gowda put up an impressive show and finished on top in the qualifying to seal his place in discus throw final while Sahana Nagaraj also made it to the final round in women’s high jump event.
Gowda, who is India’s first ever CWG medallist in discus throw, managed a distance of 64.32m in his first attempt and was way ahead of second-placed Apostolos Parellis (61.91m) from Cyprus and Jamaica’s Chad Wright (61.08m).
In the women’s high jump event, Sahana jumped 1.81m in fourth attempt to finish seventh in her group and qualify for the final.
Disappointment was in store for Mayookha Johny as her best effort of 6.11m was not good enough to qualify for the women’s long jump event.
In squash, after her giant-killing act against World No.1 Nicol David and her partner in women’s doubles, India’s Dipika Pallikal teamed up with Sourav Ghosal to notch up a straight-game win over Canada’s Sam Cornett and Shawn Delierre in a mixed doubles Pool E match.
The 22-year-old Pallikal and Ghosal thrashed the 12th seeds from Canada 11-3 11-2 to top pool E, which also has Sri Lanka, at Scotstoun Campus here.
In Pool G, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Joshna Chinappa defeated New Zealand’s Paul Coll and Amanda Landers-Murphy 11-8 11-10.
Earlier in the day, Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa made a big stride towards ending India’s medal drought at the Commonwealth Games by beating the mighty Malaysian pair of Nicol David and Low Wee Wern in the women’s doubles.
The fifth seeds from India brushed aside David and Wee Wern 11-8 11-5 for their second win in as many matches in Pool D.
The duo then easily defeated New Zealand’s Megan Craig and Kylie Lindsay 11-5, 11-4 in women’s doubles match to top Pool D. (PTI)