India continue good show, take gold tally to 14

NEW DELHI: Winning, it seems, comes naturally to Indians... at least in the Commonwealth Games. A day after Prasanta Karmakar (50m freestyle) became the first Indian to win a medal in CWG para-aquatics events, Ashish Kumar, by adding bronze to his name in the floor exercises competition, became the first from this country to win a CWG gymnastics medal. When the count ended on Thursday, 10 medals (3 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze) had accrued from a joint effort by the shooters, weightlifters, archers, wrestlers and a gymnast.

The golden run has been sustained by Gurpreet Singh, who teamed up with Vijay Kumar and Omkar Singh respectively to snatch top spot in the 25m rapid-fire pistol and 10m air pistol pair events, and wrestler Geeta, winner in the freestyle 55kg category.

Providing the silver lining were shooter Ronjan Sondhi in the double-trap, archers Ritul Chatterjee, Jignas Chittibomo and Chinna Raju Srither in the team compound segment, and grappler Nirmala Devi in the 48kg freestyle event.

Bagging bronze for the host nation were archers Jhano Hansdah, Beigyabati Chanu and Gagandeep Kaur in the team compound category, 63kg freestyle wrestler Suman Kundu, 77kg-section weightlifter Sudhir Kumar and, of course, Ashish Kumar – the surprise package of the day.

Entering Friday, India’s tally reads: 34 medals (14 gold, 11 silver, 9 bronze). And there are guaranteed medals in store with the women’s table tennis team reaching its maiden CWG final and the badminton also making its first foray into the title round of the mixed team event. Expect the show to flow.