By IANS,
New Delhi: Gold continued to pour from the Karni Singh Shooting Ranges while an unexpected bronze from the 20km walk early in the morning boosted India’s medals tally Saturday, the sixth day of the competitions at the Commonwealth Games here.
Harpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar won gold in men’s 25-metre centre fire pistol pairs event, taking India’s gold tally to 21, of which eleven have come from the sharpshooters.
India made its mark in the Games’ showpiece event, athletics, with Harminder Singh securing the bronze in the men’s 20km walk, adding to Kavita Raut’s Friday’s historic-feat of winning the bronze in the gruelling women’s 10,000 metres.
Kavita is the first Indian woman to win an individual medal from the track event in the Commonwealth Games.
The good showing in athletics and shooting notwithstanding, India slipped to third place in the overall medal count (as at 1300 hours IST) after being in the second position for five days.
India has 21 gold, 16 silver and 14 bronze. Though England also has 21 gold, it surged ahead to the second spot with more silver and bronze than India.
England count was 21 gold, 37 silver and 20 bronze. Australia remained on top with 48 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze.
Harminder Singh finished third behind the Australian duo of Jarred Tallent and Luke Adams with a personal best of 1:23:28. The 26-year-old Harminder finished a minute and 10 seconds behind silver-medallist Adams. Tallent, a double-Olympic walk medallist in the Beijing Olympic Games, clinched the gold medal after trailing Adams till the last two kilometers in a new Games record of 1:22:18.
The Indian men’s table tennis team salvaged a bronze beating Nigeria 3-0 in the third place play-off Saturday.
The hosts had little time to recover from Friday night’s painful loss to England but came up with a convincing win over the gritty Nigerians at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
However, there was disappointment for India in the women’s 20km walk. Rani Yadav finished sixth after clocking 1:42:54. Another Indian Sandhya Jolly came eighth in 1:51:44, while Deepmala Devi failed to finish the race.
England’s Jo Jackson grabbed the gold medal in by clocking 1:34:22, while Australia Claire Tallent, wife of men’s gold winner Jared, settled for the silver in 1:36:55. Kenya’s Wanjiru Grace took the bronze in 1:37:49.
All eyes are on tennis star Sania Miraza and shooting champion Gagan Narang as they vie for gold later Saturday in their events. Sania faces Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova in the women’s singles final.
Gagan and compatriot Imran Hasan will be seen in action in the Singles 50-metre Rifle 3 Positions (Men).
Other shooters featuring Saturday are Vijay Kumar and Harpreet Singh in the Pairs 25-metre Pistol (Men) and Suma Siddharth Shirur and Kavitha Yadav in the Pairs 10-metre Air Rifle shooting event.