India win 31st CWG Gold : 9 th day

Nksagar-Sagar Media -New Delhi:with two more days to go for the CWG games India hopes to reach target of above forty gold medals players are in fray of medal win bouts boxing shooting and shuttle

The shooting range provided India with a record 31st gold in the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday when Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh triumphed in the women's 10m air pistol pairs event.Samresh Jung Chandrashekhar Kumar Choudhary stood second in the 25m Standard Pistol pairs event for men and world champion Tejaswani Sawant grabbed the second spot in the 50m Rifle Prone individual event for women.

India completed an unprecedented success in athletics events in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi as they collected one gold and four bronze on Tuesday to take their medal count to 12.Indian women's 4x400m relay team added another gold to the one won Monday by discus thrower Krishna Poonia as medals rained for the home country in front of a cheering near-capacity crowd at the Jawaharalal Nehru Stadium.

Shooting
There was a three-way tie among India, Australia and Canada in the women's 10 metre air pistol with all the teams logging 759 points.India, with Heena shooting 384 and Annu logging 375, got the gold on the basis of count back after having the same number of perfect 10s (21) as Australia while Canada took the bronze with the least number of perfect 10s (14) among the three.

Tejaswini got the silver in women's 50m Rifle Prone by scoring 594, one more than Johanne Brekke (Wales) who won the bronze.In men's 25m standard pistol, Jung (561) and Chaudhary (542) combined forces to secure the silver with 1,103, 13 behind gold medallists Singapore (Bin Gai and Lip Meng Poh). England Michael Gault and Iqbal Ubhi won the bronze with 1,098.The shooting title won by Heena and Annu helped India create a new Games mark on the ninth day of competitions for the number of gold medals won in a single Commonwealth Games. India had returned home from the Manchester Games eight years ago with 30 gold medals.

It was also the 14th gold won by India in shooting. They have also won 10 silver and 3 bronze medals.The three medals won today boosted India's medal haul to 31 gold, 25 silver and 28 bronze, and kept them firmly in the second position ahead of third-placed England (28-49-36) and fourth-placed Canada (23-15-29).

Gagan Narang, already with four gold to his credit, will be gunning for his fifth today in the men's 50m rifle prone pairs event with Hariom Singh.The men's and women's 4x100m relay teams, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary and javelin thrower Kashinath Naik added a bronze each.

After Tuesday's events, only men and women's marathon remained in the athletics competition.In terms of number of medals won, it turned out to be the most productive day for India.

On Monday, India swept women's discus throw with Poonia winning gold to break a 52-year-old drought, while Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil bagged a silver and bronze respectively.The 12 medals, including a gold, is more than the 10 medals the country had won in the earlier editions.

The women's 4X400m relay quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur set the track ablaze by winning the race in 3:27.77, ahead of Nigeria (3:28.72) and England (3:29.51).Manjeet was running second at the end of first leg and Jose maintained it.Akkunji then took India to lead with a fast run in the third leg before Mandeep saw off a late surge from a Nigerian to cross the finishing line ahead of the rest.

There were scenes of wild celebration among the Indian officials present at the VIP stand and among the vociferous crowd.

National coach Bahadur Singh termed it as the beginning of India's emergence as an athletics power."We have shown that we can win medals at the highest level. Athletics competition in the Commonwealth Games is of high standard. If we maintain this level for another 3-4 years, India can become an athletics power," Bahadur told a news agency.

The medal-surge began with the women's 4x100m relay team of Geetha Satti, Srabani Nanda, P K Priya and H M Jyothi finishing third in a photo finish with a timing of 45.25secs, just one-hundredth of a second behind second-placed Ghana (45.24secs).England won gold in 44.19secs.It looked like India's final-leg runner H M Jyothi would cross the finishing line at second but Ghanaian Janet Amponsah did better and the home team had to be content with a bronze.India clocked 45.25secs, while Ghana clocked 45.24secs.

The men's quartet of Rahamatulla Molla, Krishnakumar Rane, Shammer Mon and Mohd Abdul Qureshi smashed the national record with a timing of 38.89secs.The same quartet had set a national record of 39.00secs in the semifinals on Monday.India were lagging behind in the first and second legs but Mon took them to fourth place by the end of third leg in the field of eight.Qureshi beat a runner in the final leg to take India to bronze. England won the gold in 38.74secs while Jamaica settled for a silver in 38.79secs.

Delhi CWG Hockey Semi Final:

India defeated England 5-4 on penalty strokes enter final:

India defeated England 5-4 on penalty strokes in a stunning semi-final comeback on Tuesday to move into a Commonwealth Games field hockey final against defending champion Australia.

A large crowd of 19,000 supporters went wild and gave the team a standing ovation when goalkeeper Bharat Kumar stopped Glenn Kirkham's third penalty stroke and Shivendra Kumar netted the final one.

World champion Australia beat New Zealand 6-2 in the earlier semi-final.

In a nighttime match that grabbed the focus in New Delhi, India rallied from a two-goal deficit to level 3-3 in regulation time. Striker Tushar Khandkar twice came close to scoring the golden goal during extra time but England goalkeeper James Fair stood firm under the bar.

Ace penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh's shot off a penalty corner also went wide during the first half of extra time.

For England, Ashley Jackson scored twice off the penalty corners on either side of the halftime and also hit the upright off the fourth to miss a hat-trick.Simon Mantell's powerful drag flick off an indirect penalty corner also went into the net as England led 3-1.But India surged back through Vikram Pillay and Saravanjit Singh's deflection and made numerous attacks in the last five minutes but could not get the match winner.

Saravanjit Singh had shot India ahead off the only first-half short corner in the 19th minute when Dhananjay Mahadik's push was stopped by Fair, but gave enough time to Saravanjit to dab the ball in.

Australia beat New Zealand 6-2 enter final:

In the earlier semi-final, Simon Orchard and Glenn Turner scored two goals apiece for Australia and kept the reigning champions on course for a fourth successive gold medal.

Turner and Orchard scored goals on either side of halftime with Jason Wilson and Des Abbott also scoring field goals for Australia.

Abbott set up Turner for Australia's first goal in the 25th minute after Luke Doerner's three drag flicks off short corners were smartly stopped by goalkeeper Kyle Pontinfex."The scoreline flatters us a bit, but it was a tough match," said Doerner, who missed one more attempt of the short corner in the second half.

The New Zealand defense erred twice in three minutes when it gave enough space to Orchard and Jason Wilson as Australia went 3-0 up by halftime.Des Abbott's hard push shot Australia 4-0 ahead in the 43rd minute before New Zealand hit back through Blair Hilton and captain Phil Burrows."They came back with two goals and threw everything at us," Doerner said.

New Zealand tried hard to close the gap and left enough spaces in the defense for Turner to score off a reverse flick from a narrow angle and Orchard completed the tally three minutes from time.

Hilton said if New Zealand had scored again while trailing 4-2, a comeback would have been more likely."I think the game was closer than the scores show," Hilton said. "Last time we played we lost 9-1 to them so we performed much better today."

South Africa earned fifth place when Justin Reid scored a golden goal off a 75th-minute penalty corner for a 3-2 comeback win over 10-man Pakistan. The match finished 2-2 in regulation time.

Pakistan defender Mohammad Irfan was shown the first red card of the tournament after he deliberately pushed Marvin Harper with his hockey stick inside the striking circle 12 minutes before regulation.

Pakistan team manager Khawaja told the Associated Press that tournament jury later handed three-match ban to Irfan after finding the defender guilty of Level II offense.
Irfan's push had little effect on Reid, who equalized through a drag flick off a 62nd penalty corner.Striker Rehan Butt scored both goals for Pakistan- the second one a brilliant solo run from the center line to beat goalkeeper Erasmus Pieterse.


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