Commonwealth Games: Sudhir clinches para powerlifting gold, silver in long jump for Sreeshankar-Sports News , Firstpost

Indian para powerlifter Sudhir clinched the gold medal in the men’s heavyweight category at the Commonwealth Games Day 7 on Thursday, while M Sreeshankar won a historic silver medal in men’s long jump. He became the first Indian to win a silver medal in the event in CWG history.

The other highlights of the day included Harmanpreet Singh scoring a hat-trick, as India trounced Wales 4-1 in their last men’s hockey Pool B game. India thus topped the table and avoided favourites Australia in the semi-finals.

Four Indian pugilists made it through to the semi-finals, thereby making it a total of seven boxers who are now assured of medals.

India are still in seventh place with six gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals.

Commonwealth Games: India schedule, Results, Medals tally

Gold for Sudhir

Sudhir claimed India’s only gold medal of Day 7 in the men’s heavyweight category of weightlifting.

Sudhir, an Asian Para Games bronze medallist, lifted 208kg in his first attempt before taking it to 212kg in his second effort to gather 134.5 points and register a new Games record. He opened India’s para sports medal account in the ongoing CWG. The 27-year-old Sudhir has an impairment due to the effects of polio.

Silver for Sreeshankar

Murali Sreeshankar clinched a silver in the men’s long jump event with an 8.08m jump in his fifth attempt. He finished second behind Laquan Nairn of Bahamas.

Nairn also made the best jump of 8.08m but his second best of 7.98m was better than Sreeshankar’s 7.84m. Jovan van Vuuren (8.06m) of South Africa won the bronze.

Muhammed Anees Yahiya finished fifth with a best jump of 7.97m.

Commonwealth Games: India Day 8 complete schedule, time in IST

Fluent hockey win

After being held goalless in the first quarter, Harman struck two penalty corners home in the second to put India ahead and then, converted a stroke in the third to complete his hat-trick. Gurjant got the fourth in the final quarter after Gareth Furlong had pulled one back for Wales through a smartly taken penalty corner. India thus finished the pool engagements with three wins and a draw.

Boxing assured of seven medals

Amit Panghal in the men’s 48kg-51kg (Flyweight) class, began India’s fine run in boxing on the day with a unanimous 5-0 decision on points over Scotsman Lennon Mulligan. Then Jasmine in the women’s 57kg-60kg (Lightweight) category, also reached the semis with a 4-1 result against Troy Garton of New Zealand. Sagar in 92kg+ (Super Heavyweight) class then brought about India’s third win on the day beating Keddy Evans Agnes of Seychelles 5-0 on points to reach his semis. Rohit Tokas also reached the semi-finals of the 67kg event.

With this India now have seven pugilists in the semis in Boxing.

Badminton: Sindhu, Srikanth, Lakshya win

In badminton, India did not have a perfect day but still picked up four wins with PV Sindhu beating Maldives’ Fathimath Abdul Razzak 21-4, 21-11 in a Round of 32 women’s singles match. Kidambi Srikanth was also in action on the first day of the individual competition and won his Round of 32 match 21-9, 21-9 against Uganda’s Daniel Wanagaliya.

Aakarshi Kashyap won the Round of 32 match after her opponent from Pakistan, Mahoor Shahzad retired midway through the second game. Aakarshi had won the first game 22-20. Lakshya Sen won his match against Vernon Smeed of St. Helena 21-4, 21-5.

There was heartbreak in the mixed doubles however with Ashwini Ponappa and B. Sumeeth Reddy, losing to England’s Callum Hemming and Jessica Pugh, 21-18, 21-16 in their Round of 32 match.

Mixed fortunes in squash

India had mixed fortunes in the squash doubles matches as well with wins coming through Sunayna Kuruvilla/Anahat Singh in the women’s doubles when they bt Yeheni Kuruppu/Sinaly Chanithma of Sri Lanka 11-9, 11-4 in a Round of 32 encounter while Velavan Senthilkumar, paired up with Abhay Singh in the men’s doubles, to get the better of Luca Reich/Joe Chapman of the British Virgin Islands 11-3, 11-1 to move to round of 16.

In the mixed doubles while No.1 seed Dipika Pallikal/Saurav Ghosal beat Emily Whitlock/Peter Creed of Wales 11-8, 11-4 in their first game, the experienced Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu/Joshana Chinappa went down to Australia’s Donna Lobban/Cameron Pilley in two straight games, 8-11 and 9-11.

Dipika and Joshna cruised into the quarter-final after beating the Barbadian pair of Meagan Best and Amanda Haywood in the round of 16. The Indian duo won 11-4, 11-4.

Sathyan, Manika stamp class in table tennis mixed doubles

Sathyan Gnansekaran and Manika Batra, favourites to win the mixed double competition produced a masterclass against a hapless Seychelles pairing of Mick Crea/Laura Sinon, to win 11-1, 11-3, 11-1. India’s second mixed doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula breezed past the Northern Ireland pairing of Owen Cathcart and Sophie Earley 11 – 7, 11 – 8, 11 – 9.

There was disappointment from the paddler’s camp however with Sanil Shetty/Reeth Tennison going down to Malaysia’s Wong Qi Shen/Tee Ai Xin in a round of 64 match. The Indians lost the first two games 6-11, 10-12 but then came back brilliantly to win the third and fourth games 13-11, 11-8 and level the tie. The Malaysian pair however clinched the final game 11-8 to put paid to India’s hopes.

Sreeja and Manika Batra also entered the women’s singles prequarterfinals. Sreeja beat Malaysia’s Karen Lyne 12-10, 12-10, 4-11, 11-8, 11-8 in a round of 32 contest. Manika defeated Canada’s Fu Ching Nam with a 11-5, 11-2, 11-7 scoreline. Reeth went down to England’s Charlotte Bardsley 1-4 in the round of 32.

In para table tennis, Bhavina Patel won 3-0 win over Akanisi Latu of Fiji in a class 3-5 group match.

Other day seven results

Hima Das won her women’s 200m heat on the Athletics track with a timing of 23.42s to qualify for the semis.

Manpreet Kaur of India, competing in the women’s Lightweight Para Powerlifting competition finished fourth with 89.6 points while Sakina Khatun finished fifth with 87.5 points.

Mridul Borgohain playing his Section D game in the Men’s Singles Sectional, went down to Ross Davis 13-21, suffering his first loss after two good wins yesterday.

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