The Indian men’s 10m air rifle pair of Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and world record holder Gagan Narang started the gold rush for the country in the morning which was sustained by women shooters Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayeed who picked up the pairs 25m pistol event for women in style.
Two more silver medals came India’s way from the Dr Karni Singh shooting range before Greco-Roman style grapplers Ravinder Singh (60 kg), Sanjay (74 kg) and Anil Kumar (96kg) made a clean sweep of all three gold medals on offer from the wrestling mat to round off a splendid day for the hosts.
The two silver medals were earned by Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh, in the men’s 50m pistol pairs event, and the woman’s duo of world champion Tejaswini Sawant and Lajjakumari Gauswami, who stood second in the pairs 50m rifle 3 position.
Wrestler Sanjay takes a victory lap |
The five gold and two silver medals boosted the hosts’ overall medal tally to 5-4-2 on the second day of competitions after the weightlifters gave the country two silver and as many bronze medals yesterday.
The day commenced in scintillating fashion for India when Bindra and Narang ended the first day’s gold medal drought with a Games record of 1193, overtaking their own mark of 1189 set four years ago in Melbourne, to clinch the men’s 10m air rifle pairs event.
Their feat was followed by Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed who added the second gold in the women’s 25m pistol pairs event with a championship record of 1156 to boot. In the afternoon Ravinder Singh earned India their first gold medal in wrestling at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex by outclassing England’s Christopher Terence Bosson 7-2 in the 60 kg final. Sanjay followed his teammate by winning the 74kg gold beating South Africa’s Brian Richard Addinall 2-0 in the final.
The icing on the day’s performance was provided by Anil Kumar who made it a clean gold medal sweep by overwhelming Australia’s Hassene Fkiri 6-0 in the final of the 96kg class. Indian shuttlers beat Barbados 5-0.
