Gold Coast, April 14 (IANS) Neeraj Chopra and Manika Batra clinched India’s first-ever gold medals in men’s javelin throw and women’s singles table tennis respectively while boxers Vikas Krishan, M.C. Mary Kom and Gaurav Solanki claimed top podium finishes. Golden wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sumit Kumar and shooter Sanjeev Rajput took third-placed India’s tally to 59 medals (25 gold, 16 silver, 18 bronze) at the end of Day 10 of the 21st Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.

Among other success stories, defending champions Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa stormed into the final of women’s doubles category while Dipika and Saurav Ghosal clinched silver in the mixed doubles, even as both the men’s and the women’s hockey teams lost to England in the bronze medal matches.

Moreover, shuttlers P.V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and men’s doubles pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the finals while the women’s doubles combine of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy bagged the bronze medal.

Paddlers also had a great day, with the men’s doubles pairs of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, and Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shankar Shetty bagged the silver and bronze medal respectively on a day three boxers Satish Kumar (91kg), Amit Panghal (49kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg) settled for silvers.

However, Mary, a five-time world champion, defeated Kristina O’Hara of Northern Ireland by a unanimous 5:0 verdict to take the women’s 48kg title in probably her final CWG campaign.

Vikas defeated Dieudonne Wilfried Seyi Ntsengue of Cameroon by a 5:0 unanimous verdict in a close contest in the 75kg category, while Gaurav (52kg) won by a split 4:1 verdict against Brendan Irvine of Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, India’s Manish had to be content with silver in the men’s lightweight (60kg) division after losing 2:3 to Harry Garside of Australia in a hard-fought final.

Amit finished with the silver medal after losing 1:3 to England’s Galai Yafai in the final, while Satish lost the final of the 91kg category, losing 0-5 by unanimous verdict to England’s Frazer Clarke. This is the first time India got a silver medal in the super heavyweight category in the CWG.

Apart from these six boxers, three others, Muhammed Hussamuddin, Naman Tanwar and Manoj Kumar claimed bronze medals on Friday as Indian completed its boxing campaign with nine medals.

In athletics, javelin thrower Neeraj delighted the country as he registered his season’s best performance of 86.47 metres to win the final, while Vipin Kashana, the other Indian in the fray, took the fifth spot with an attempt of 77.87m.

Jinson Johnson set a new national record of 3 minutes and 37.86 seconds while taking the fifth spot in the men’s 1,500m final. Promising Arpinder Singh also missed a podium spot in the men’s triple jump with a a best attempt of 16.46m to finish fourth.

Shooter Sanjeev Rajput clinched the gold medal in men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, shooting a total of 454.5 to create a meet record, while Chain Singh, the other Indian in the fray, finished fifth with 419.1.

But the Indian contingent had to return empty-handed from the men’s Trap event as Kynan Chenai and Manavjit Sandhu failed to qualify for the final.

Rajput’s medal was India’s 16th medal in shooting, which includes seven gold medals as the event came to close here.

In wrestling, Sumit won all his four bouts in the Nordic (round robin) format to emerge champion. Korey Jarvis of Canada got the silver while Pakistan’s Tayab Raza took the bronze.

Among the women, Vinesh won gold in the 50kg competition as she ended at the top of the standings at the end of the Nordic format.

Somveer bagged bronze in the men’s 86kg division, defeating Alexander Moore of Canada 7-3 in the bronze medal play-off.

Rio Olympics medallist Sakshi Malik took the bronze medal in the women’s 62kg category.

In badminton, it was yet another superb show, with at least a gold medal assured as World No.3 Sindhu will meet seasoned compatriot and World No.12 Saina in an all-Indian women’s singles final on Sunday.

While Olympic 2016 silver medallist Sindhu thrashed Canada’s Michelle Li 21-18, 21-8 in the semi-final, Saina overcame Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour, winning by 21-14, 18-21, 21-17.

In the men’s singles, World No.1 Srikanth set his final date with Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei. While Srikanth registered an easy 21-10, 21-17 victory over England’s Rajiv Ouseph, Chong Wei overcame World No.11 Prannoy 21-16, 9-21, 21-14.

Prannoy then lost to World No.22 Ouseph 21-17, 23-25, 9-21 in the bronze medal match at the Carrara Sports Arena here.

In the men’s doubles, Satwik and Chirag thrashed Sri Lanka’s Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonethilleka 21-18, 21-10 to enter the final.

Ashwini and Sikki bagged the women’s doubles bronze medal, beating Australians Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Somerville 21-19, 21-19.

Ashwini and Satwik had a poor day in the mixed doubles, losing their semi-final as well as the bronze medal playoff.

In squash, the women’s doubles pair of Dipika and Joshna beat England’s Laura Massaro and Sarah-Jane Perry 11-10, 11-5 to seal their place in the final.

However, in the mixed doubles category, Dipika, who then partnered Saurav Ghosal and settled for a silver, losing 8-11, 10-11 to Australia’s Donna Urquhart and Cameron Pilley in the final.

In hockey, the Indian men’s team lost 1-2 to England, while the women’s team suffered a 0-6 thrashing.

In the men’s category, Sam Ward (sixth, 43rd minutes) twice converted penalty corners to give England the win over India, who had restored parity in the 26th minute later with a successful penalty corner conversion from Varun Kumar.

–IANS
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