After India’s numerous wins at the Commonwealth Games 2022, PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen bring home the only golds left on the wall of achievement. Both the players bagged golds in women’s and men’s singles respectively. Sindhu gave hard hits to Canadian contender Michelle Li, by a 21-15, 21-13 game in 48 minutes. Lakshya on the other hand, started slow against Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong and hammered the nail with force on the perfect high, with scores 19-21, 21-9, 21-16.
Following the tough legacy of Neeraj Chopra who, after winning a gold (CWG 2018), became the first Asian man to win one at CWG in javelin throw, India’s Annu Rani now thrives by winning a bronze at the CWG 2022 in Women’s Javelin Throw on August 7th. The Meerut resident seemed optimistic in an interview as she affirmed her family’s pride in her win. Rani was the first Indian javelin thrower to reach the World Athletics Championships in 2019.
Anshu Malik settles for a silver as Nigerian wrestler Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye wins by 7-3 points, in the Women’s Freestyle 57 kg.
Meanwhile in the Men’s Freestyle 65 kg, India’s Bajrang Punia takes away the gold against contender Lachlan McNeil.
Sakshi Malik wins a stunning gold competing with Canadian Ana Godinez Gonazalez in the Women’s Freestyle 62 kg.
India wins another gold by Deepak Punia in the Men’s Freestyle 86 kg against Pakistan’s Muhammad Inam.
Mohit Grewal bags a bronze against competitor Aaron Johnson of Jamaica in the Men’s Freestyle 125 kg.
India bags another gold in the men’s heavyweight para powerlifting, won by Sudhir, for lifting 208kg and 212kg in two attempts. The winning powerlifter set a Game record. Sudhir suffers from an impairment because of effects of polio. Meanwhile, a silver was won by Murali Sreeshankar in men’s long jump for an 8.08 m jump, becoming the first Indian male to hold a silver in long jump.
Indian weightlifter Harjinder Kaur bagged a bronze in the women’s 71kg on Monday. In an interview call, the Patiala resident claimed that she never thought about not winning a medal in the CWG, further adding that the reason for her strong arms was working on the chaff-cutter machine with her farmer father in their fields. Working in the field kept her in shape, she exclaimed. Victory was in favor of Kaur when strong contender Joy Eze of Nigeria was let go of after three failed attempts.
Swimmers Advait Page and Kushagra Rawat secure a position in the freestyle final, scoring fourth, with the recorded time of 15:39.25s in heat 1 and 15:47.77s in heat 2 respectively. Eight swimmers with top scores were enrolled in the final premise. Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj however, missed a secure position in the men’s 200m backstroke by a mere 0.19s. Nevertheless, making it to the first reserve (given anyone drops out at the last minute), Nataraj clocked at 2:00.84s. Swimmers Luke Greenbank and Pieter Coetze entered in as first and second respectively.
Weightlifter Achinta Sheuli scored a clean win against Malaysian Erry Hidayat Mohammad by lifting 303 kg in total like a piece of cake. He won a gold at NEC hall on Sunday, thanking his family afterwards. Sheuli has been a consistent gold winner, by acing it twice in the Commonwealth Championships. In addition, he has also previously won a silver in the 2021 Junior World Weightlifting Championships.
After taking a lead in just two minutes of the match, India scored a perfect 11-0 against Ghana, and took home the hockey match victory in Pool B. Building the advantage of the upper hand in the first two minutes resulted fruitful when the Ghana team tried to score a Penalty Corner hit, which was dodged by the Indian defense. Players Abhishek scoring first, Harmanpreet Singh scoring second in Penalty Corner, Shamsher Singh scoring third, Nilakanta Sharma, Varun Kumar and Mandeep Singh were seen performing wonders, eventually bagging a successful win. Harmanpreet hit the winning goal, after being in the game for more than 50 minutes.
India’s chances to take the gold home are bright, right on the second day of the Common Wealth Games 2022. With competitions in weightlifting for the medal, participants Sanket Mahadev Sagar, Bidyarani Devi and Gururaja Poojary are to be seen in the grind. Among women participants, Mirabai Chanu, India’s favourite silver medallist, will be witnessed in the league for 49kg weightlifting. Bronze medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain will be in action in sessions of 16 matches. Other participants like Anahat Singh, Saurav Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa, all for Ro32 squash fixtures and Srihari Nataraj for men’s 100m backstroke final in swimming, will also be coming forward.
