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Boxers reap rich golden harvest |
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Kamal-Saha clinch gold in TT doubles
Oz gunning for a hat-trick
Boxers, paddlers bring cheers
Kashyap pips Anand for bronze
Dope taint spoils India’s fine show
Australia survive a scare
Saina a win away from maiden gold
Closing ceremony to be contemporary
Jung rues absence of qualified coach
India script series whitewash of Aussies
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Boxers reap rich golden harvest
New Delhi, October 13 As the Talkatora Indoor Stadium was buzzing with excitement, three Indian boxers - Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Paramjeet Samota sat in their rooms, listening to the crowd sing, feeling the wave of emotion hitting the stands, waiting, with sweat, tension and hope riding on their forehead… and what a golden wait it was! From contrasting backgrounds, added to India’s golden tally at the Commonwealth Games by winning their respective weight categories here tonight. Suranjoy Singh , Manoj Kumar and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) garnered gold medals in the ring to make up some ground for the generally disappointing show of Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar and Jai Bhagwan. Manoj was under extra pressure but made light work of his bout against England’s Bradley Saunders winning 11-2 on points. For flyweight boxer Suranjoy Singh, it was a bittersweet moment, as he won gold after injured Benson Njangiru of Kenya opted out of 52kg final bout. Suranjoy had been in sensational form all through the Games and was a hot favourite for the win. Indian boxing team’s Cuban coach, B.I. Fernandez said, “I am extremely happy for him. I know he would have wanted to beat the opponent in the ring, and I am sure he would have done it with ease, but still a medal is a medal. And when it is Gold, ask the ones who have missed out, you should never complain.” On the other hand, Manoj started his bout against Saunders with a clear strategy laid out in front of him. He kept his guard for the entire duration of the bout, and won all his points solely on Saunders’ follies. He swayed, jabbed and teased his opponent’s guard till he found a way through, and when he did, he ran away with a 4-1 lead in the opening round. Walking back to his corner, Manoj’s energy, controlled, but oozing, could be seen from a distance. He was back on his feet and up with his guard as soon as the ‘seconds out’ were announced for the second round to begin. And he picked up, exactly from where he had left in the first round. Punch after punch, brilliant foot work and a roaring crowd got to the Englishman’s nerves as he stumbled, got cornered and bled four more points to help Manoj to a 4-1 second round lead, and an 8-1 overall lead going into the final round. The last round saw Manoj use brilliant counter punching strategies as he kept his guard till the very end. He moved, with enough control over his opponent’s arm movement, and held on for a brilliant gold medal with a 3-1 round score and a winning score of 11-2. The mantra, due to Manoj’s unerring technique and guard, has undergone a change, now, defence is the best form of offence!
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Kamal-Saha clinch gold in TT doubles
New Delhi, October 13 The Indian pair made a tremendous comeback from one set down to win the match against the Singaporean opponents, Gao Ning and Yang Zi, in a 5-set match that was closely fought. The Indian pair won the final match by 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 5-11, and 11-8. In a nail-biting match, after both the opponents won two sets each, the fifth and the final set became decisive and the Indian pair fought back and claimed gold medal. Earlier, the Indian pair of Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha did not let India down in the semi-finals against England pair of Liam Pitchford and Andrew Baggaley. The match went in India’s favor thanks to the spirited fight by Sharath and Subhajit who emerged winners by 3-2. The final set was the decisive one when after both teams stood at two each. The Indian pair beat the English opponents 11-13, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6. However, Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal’s dream of defending his singles title went up in smoke after a narrow 3-4 semi-final loss to Singapore’s Yang Zi. But the Indian joined hands with compatriot Subhajit Saha to enter the men’s doubles final, at the CWG. He said that home crowd distracted his concentration. “The crowd was a big distraction and playing on home ground already had me under pressure,” said Achanta. “The spectators’ support put additional pressure,” said Achanta after losing mens singles semi-finals.
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Oz gunning for a hat-trick
New Delhi, October 13 Australians, who have conceded only five goals in the competition so far, are wary of the sultry and hostile weather conditions as the game is scheduled to be played at 11 a.m. “When we finish our engagements here, we would have done like seven hours of marathon run,” rued Australian coach, Richard Charlesworth, blaming both the Commonwealth Games Federation and the International Hockey Federation for scheduling the games during hot noons. Managers of various teams have been critical of the games scheduled in the late forenoon and early afternoons saying the weather has been taking a heavy toll on players. Richard Charlesworth would be looking for the fourth consecutive Commonwealth games gold in the sport. Earlier this year, Australia had won the World Cup at the same venue and later reiterated its supremacy by winning the 2010 edition of the Champions Trophy in Melbourne. Known for his perfection, Richard Charlesworth knows well that if the home team supported by a vociferous crowd can repeat extraordinary performance it had exhibited in the game against Pakistan the other day. Besides, the splendid recovery India made in the semi-final game against England was also remarkable. Though Australia had beaten India convincingly 5-2 in the league matches, the gold medal encounter is expected to be different than the earlier game. “India played very well for 15 to 20 minutes in the later stages of the first half but we recovered and outplayed them in the rest of the game,” commented Richard Charlesworth. “Every team has some weaknesses and it depends how you cover them up in a tough game like the gold medal match tomorrow.” Australians have some of the best players, including skipper Jamie Dwyer, Glenn Turner, Rob Hammond, Mark Knowles and Luke Doerner, in the contemporary game while India can boast of only dependable player Sardar Singh. Players like Gurbaj Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Dharmvir Singh and goalkeeper Bharat Chhetri have shaped well in this tournament. Drag flicker Sandeep Singh and forward-cum-skipper Rajpal Singh have also shown patches of sparkle in the tournament so far. How the Indian team perform tomorrow before a strong home crowd will depend upon its strategy. It has some worries as halfback Gurbaj Singh is still nursing an injured ankle. It is for the first time in three appearances in the Commonwealth Games that India has made it to the gold medal round. The previous best was fourth position at Kuala Lumpur where it had lost to the hosts Malaysia in the semi-finals.
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Boxers, paddlers bring cheers
New Delhi, October 13 India completed a hat-trick of gold medals in boxing and won all the three finals in which it figured. Paramjit Samota’s gold was 36th for India and that took it past England’s gold tally of 35. England has already crossed 130 mark in total. India also hopes to cross the century mark before the curtain is drawn on the 19th edition of the friendly games of the commonwealth on Thursday night. Australia, England and Canada continued their gold medal winning spree while Indian hopes of a few gold medals from shooting turned sour with Samaresh Jung and Gagan Narang failing to match their own best performances. Among the contributors of gold medals to the tally of England was shooter Parag Patel of Indian origin. He not only retained the title he had won at Melbourne in the Singles Full Bore Open, but also created a new Games record of 396, beating James Corbett of Australia to second position. Yesterday, Iqbal Ubhi, another player of Indian origin, had given England a bronze medal in the 25m Standard Pistol Pairs for men. Tara Alice Whitten of Canada won the women’s individual Time Trial gold medal pushing Linda Villumen of New Zealand and Julia Shaw of England to second and third position. David Miller of Scotland did India favour by beating Alex Dowset of England in the Men’s individual time trial event that took place on Noida Expressway. Australia also managed to beat Kiwis on penalties to retain the women’s hockey gold. Australia, which won a bronze in road time trial for men through Luke Durbridge, ended the cycling competitions winning 14 out of 18 gold medals at stake. Earlier Sharleen Stratton won a gold medal in the 3 m springboard diving. It was her fifth Games medal. Only woman diver to have won more medals than Sharleen was Beverley Boys of Canada who won seven Commonwealth Games medals between 1966 and 1978. Jennifer Abel of Canada who won the gold medal in 1m springboard yesterday won silver today to take her Games tally to three medals, same as by Sharleen. Incidentally, Australia also ended its 12-year Commonwealth Games drought in badminton when its un-seeded pair of He Tian Tang and Smith Kate-Wilson beat England’s Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White in the women’s doubles bronze medal match at 21-23, 21-12 and 21-16. Australia also added to its squash tally mixed doubles gold through Kasey Brown and Cameron Pilley besides winning bronze medals in both men’s doubles and women’s doubles.
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Kashyap pips Anand for bronze
New Delhi, October 13 All hopes now rest on the young Indian girls who will fight for a gold medal in the women singles and doubles categories tomorrow. India last won a badminton gold in the Games in 1982 when Syed Modi won the men's singles event. While ace shuttle Saina Nehwal will compete in the singles category, Jwala Gutta-Ashwini duo will be up against the Singaporean duo of Mulia Sari Shinta and Lei Yao. As he finished his last point, an emotional Kashyap had tears rolling down his cheeks as he acknowledged the support of the home crowd.
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Dope taint spoils India’s fine show
New Delhi October 13 Yadav had finished sixth in the 20km walk held on October 8, with a time of 1 hour, 42 minutes, 54 seconds. "The CGF can now confirm that the A sample of Ms Rani Yadav, a competitor in the women’s 20 kilometre road race on October 9, 2010, was found to contain 19-Norandrosterone, a prohibited Anabolic Agent under category S1 of the WADA List of Prohibited Substances and Methods," the CGF statement said. "Ms Yadav has been provisionally suspended from the Games and, in accordance with the ADS, the athlete will attend, or be represented, at a Provisional Hearing before the CGF Federation Court later today", it added. The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had conducted out of competition and in-competition tests on the Core Probables for the Games. Out of the 727 samples tested, 13 turned out to be positive, and they had been removed from the Indian probables for the Commonwealth Games. In all, NADA took samples of 5000 sportpersons from 2009 to uptil now. Athletics Association of India secretary-general Lalit Bhanot, who is also the secretary-general of the Organising Committee, said the dope shame happened despite everyone's best effort to avoid it. "It's unfortunate. We tried our level best. Not just the federations, but NADA (National Anti Doping Agency) and government authorities are very serious about this issue. We have done out of competition as well in-competitions tests," Bhanot said. |
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Australia survive a scare
New Delhi, October 13 New Zealand were unlucky not to end the day with a win as they even after dominating proceedings, both in the first and second half, failed to utilise scoring chances they had earned through their some good moves. On the other hand, Australians, were able to give their coach Frank Murray a golden farewell as he had already announced his decision to retire after the Commonwealth Games. It was the sweltering heat and sultry conditions that had taken a heavy toll on the players who are not used to playing under such climatic conditions. The Kiwis matched their more fancied opponents in every department of the game. Though they had finished fourth in the last edition of the games, the Kiwi girls had the Australian defence under pressure throughout. Even after conceding lead in the ninth minute when Nicole Jessica Arrold scored for the defending champions, New Zealand fought back into the game through some brilliant moves by Anita Punt, Natasha Fitzsimons and Samantha Harrison. Even after trailing 0-1 till the 47th minute, Kiwi girls made concerted efforts to restore parity and succeeded in their efforts in the 48th minute following their fifth penalty corner when Samantha Harrison picked the rebound from the pads of Australian goalkeeper Tony Cronks and managed to get the ball glide past her stretched gauntlets for the equaliser. Stung by the reverse, Australians were once again in attack with vengeance and managed to surge ahead again following a melee that followed a penalty corner award. It was Asleigh Nelson who got the ball into the net as the ball travelled several sticks. When it looked all lost for New Zealand, the seventh penalty corner award in the last minute came as a blessing in disguise following which Clarissa Eshuis found the target to take the match to extra time.
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Heena settles for silver
New Delhi, October 13 India also drew blanks both in the men’s singles 50 m Rifle prone and skeet events. India ended the day with silver and a bronze and a lower gold tally than the last edition of the Games. It won 14 gold medals now against 16 won at Melbourne in 2006. Gagan Narang, who had won gold medals in the first four events he participated, ended on a sore note failing to qualify for the final of Singles 50 m Rifle Prone for men. Yesterday, in the pairs, he had ended with a bronze in partnership with Hariom Singh. Samaresh Jung, who had set a personal record of five gold medals in the last edition of the games, could manage a silver medal and a bronze medal in the two events he participated here. India needed to win some more gold medals in shooting to keep intact its number two position in the medals tally. For Sunny Thomas, the coach of Indian shooting team, overall performance evoked mixed feelings. “The medal count has gone up from 21 to 30 since the last Games. The gold count, however, has dropped from 16 to 14. But overall I am happy on the whole.” The foreign coach of the Indian team, Stanislav Lapidus, was somewhat disappointed as he expected a minimum of two gold medals from women shooters. “But we have not got any,” he said maintaining that he was also not satisfied with the performance of Gagan Narang in prone events. Gagan Narang, even after failing to make to the medal round, said that “Indian shooters are happy as we should look at positive things. Four gold medals with four new records is a fairly good performance. My effort was to get the maximum number of gold. We could have done better in the pair’s events.” Heena Sidhu, who headed the qualification round with a score of 383, was beaten in the final shoot off by Pei Chin Bibiana Ng of Malaysia. The Malaysian shot 98.9 against 98.6 by Heena Sidhu while second Indian shooter in the Singles 10m Air Pistol, Annu Raj Singh, finished fourth by scoring 377 in qualifying round and 98.7 in the final shoot off. “I was feeling little cold during the qualifying round. That went wrong and then the mind went wrong. Normally I do not count scores and concentrate on my shooting. But I could have done better,” said Heena Sidhu in her post-event interaction with media. Australian Dina Aspandiyarova got the bronze with 380 points in the qualifying round and 98.8 in the shoot off.
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Saina a win away from maiden gold
New Delhi, October 13 Top seed Saina have been in red-hot form this year, winning three titles -- India Open, Singapore Superseries and Indonesian Superseries —to rise to the world number three and so far in the Games, she has remained invincible. The 20-year-old has an enviable record of beating Wong four times this year but Saina will be fully aware that past record will not matter tomorrow. In fact, it was Wong who had stretched Saina into three games in their last encounter in the team event. "She is a very good player. In the final it will be a difficult match, it would be a 50-50 chance," Saina had said after making the final, beating Susan Egelstaff. Taking her past match into consideration, Wong will be hoping to better her silver medal finish in Melbourne 2006. Winner of the 2009 Superseries Masters is known for her exceptional endurance and stamina and has a very good defence. Both Saina and Wong have the ability to run a continuous long rally and so it would be a battle of attrition tomorrow. "I do not have pressure on me now, so I'm just going to enjoy the final," is what Wong had to say about the final. "All the athletes are aiming for the Summer Olympics 2012. My target for this year has been gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games," she said. Saina had beaten Wong at the Asian Championship in April, Indian Open final in
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Closing ceremony to be contemporary
New Delhi, October 13 There might not be any Bollywood actor among the performers but a galaxy of top singers would be there to croon. Organisers said leading playback singers like Shaan, Sukhwinder and Kailash Kher would perform besides Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, the troika of composers behind many successful chartbusters, among others. Closing ceremonies of sporting events are always a celebration of the success of the games, Viraf Sarkari, director of the opening and closing ceremonies, said. He said the closing ceremony would be lighthearted and make everybody in the stadium sing and dance. Over 7,000 performers would be involved in the action. Organisers, who have been busy with the rehearsal of the mega show, say the main highlight of the ceremony would be a laser show and the Rs 40 cr aerostat, which was the main attraction of the opening ceremony, would also be there. Another highlight of the event would a colourful portrayal of martial arts. Bharat Bala, the games’ creative director, says the event would be youthful and high-tech. It will be a big party, full of fun and musical extravaganza, he said. AR Rahman would sing Vande Matarama in a traditional way, as desired by the Group of Ministers supervising the Games’ preparations, and this section is called “Tribute to Motherland”. Ironically, his theme song for the Games, O Yaaro India Bula Lia, has been a massive disappointment and the gifted composer has had to rely on his previous hits like “Jai Ho” to enthuse the audiences. The musical evening would feature sufi, pop and contemporary songs. Over 2,000 schools students would gyrate to Rahman’s number and all top singers would join hands for the finale to bid a final goodbye. The section, an official said, is called the “Music of Universal Love”. In the martial arts section, organisers say, over 500 performers would showcase martial arts from southern and northeastern states. Scotland, which is the host of next Commonwealth Games, would also present a special performance.
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Jung rues absence of qualified coach
New Delhi, October 13 The likes of Omkar Singh, Vijay Kumar, Gurpreet Singh and Heena Sidhu have far exceeded expectations with their rich medal haul, despite having to train without a coach, but Jung felt the situation is not "ideal". "It's not ideal," Jung said, before adding, "A coach can plan strategies and the shooters' job is to concentrate on the shooting. But, in the absence of a coach, shooters have to do both. It's not that we don't need a coach if we keep winning medals." After their solid performances in the Delhi Commonwealth Games, the pistol shooters will be expected to extend their good form in the Guangzhou Asian Games as well, scheduled to held in November. On taking on Asia's best without a coach in the continental sporting extravaganza, Jung said, "A new coach would not be of much help right now, because, by the time he gets to know the shooters, the Asian Games will be over," the shooter, who's won a silver and a bronze in the Delhi Games, said. "I will try on my own to try and give my best shot in the Asian Games," Jung added. Jung, an officer with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), stunned the shooting world by winning an unprecedented seven medals, including four gold in 2006 Melbourne Games. In this edition, though, the shooter just participated in one event. A gold eluded him but he ensured that he finished on the podium at least. Asked if he was preparing in earnest for the Asian Games, Jung said, "Winning silver or bronze here won't effect my performance in the Asian Games but I am worried about my score. I have to concentrate on my training as there is just one month left." Jung also lavished praise on Gagan Narang for winning four gold medals in the competition. "He shot pretty well. Four gold medals means a lot in such competitions and he shot all four of them with Games record. "Nobody can win everything. And nobody is perfect," Jung said in a thinly-veiled reference to Narang's failure to win six medals and emulate the Delhite's feat. — PTI
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India script series whitewash of Aussies
Bangalore, October 13 Tendulkar (53 not out) added a half century to his first innings double ton and capitalised on the foundation laid by debutant Cheteshwar Pujara (72) as India easily surpassed the target of 207 in the final session of the last day here. Tendulkar hit the winning runs, a two, off Nathan Hauritz half-an-hour into the final session to trigger wild celebrations at the Indian camp and among the Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd. Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 21 and shared 61 runs with Tendulkar from 16 overs for the unbroken fourth wicket. With the back-to-back victories, having won the first Test at Mohali by a narrow one wicket, India took the two-match series 2-0 though the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had already been in their bag. With the win in the exciting Test, India strengthened their position at the top of ICC Test rankings while Australia were pushed down to fifth. For Australia, this was the first time after 1982 that they have been handed a series whitewash by the opposition. They had lost 0-3 in their 1982 Test tour of Pakistan. Ricky Ponting will also have to wait for Australia's first Test victory against India under his leadership. Chasing 207 for a victory in a minimum of 77 overs on a deteriorating track, India lost opener Virender Sehwag (7) cheaply but debutant Pujara and first innings centurion Murali Vijay held the fort admirably by sharing 72 runs from 13 overs for second wicket to take India on victory path. Later, the two senior most batsmen Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid combined for to take India to victory in the Test dominated by Tendulkar's sixth double hundred and stamp their superiority over Australia. At tea break, India needed just 22 runs for a win. — PTI Need to groom more bowlers: Dhoni
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni lauded his bowling unit for playing a pivotal role in India's 2-0 series win over Australia but said India need to groom more bowlers, especially pacers, since performing consistently was not easy in international cricket. India have rested key bowlers like paceman Zaheer Khan and spinner Harbhajan Singh for the upcoming one-day series. Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma are also not part of the squad since they are nursing injuries. "I am not playing with key players since we need to give them rest. We need to groom bowlers. We have four or five good fast bowlers and three spinners who have been consistently performing. "We need to rotate. It is also difficult for the fast bowlers to perform well in each and every match in India. There is lot of pressure on the fast bowlers," Dhoni said at a press conference here. Dhoni said his bowlers forced a result in Bangalore where the pitch was not offering much help. "The efforts put up by our players especially the bowlers was really outstanding .” Scoreboard Australia (1st innings): 478 India (1st innings): 495 Australia (2nd innings): Watson lbw b Ojha 32 Katich c Dhoni b Harbhajan 24 Ponting lbw b Khan 72 Clarke st Dhoni b Ojha 3 Hussey lbw b Ojha 20 North b Harbhajan 3 Paine c Dhoni b Sreesanth 23 Johnson b Khan 11 Hauritz not out 21 Hilfenhaus b Sreesanth 0 George c Dhoni b Khan 0 Extras (B 1, LB 5, W 3, NB 5) 14 Total (all out in 75.2 overs) 223 Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-58, 3-65, 4-126, 5-131, 6-181, 7-185, 8-217, 9-218, 10-223. Bowling: Zaheer Khan 11.2-1-41-3, S Sreesanth 14-2-48-2, Pragyan Ojha 25-5-57-3, Harbhajan Singh 21-2-63-2, Virender Sehwag 4-0-8-0. India (2nd innings): Vijay lbw b Watson 37 Sehwag c Paine b Hilfenhaus 7 Pujara b Hauritz 72 Tendulkar not out 53 Dravid not out 21 Extras (B 8, LB 5, W 4) 17 Total (for three wickets in 45 overs) 207 Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-89, 3-146 Bowling: Ben Hilfenhaus 7-0-27-1, Mitchell Johnson 14-4-42-0, Nathan Hauritz 12-0-76-1, Peter George 7-0-29-0, Shane Watson 5-0-20-1. |
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Indian star paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhjit Saha created history by bagging India’s first-ever gold medal in men’s doubles table tennis here today.
The Indian pair made a tremendous comeback from one set down to win the match against the Singaporean opponents, Gao Ning and Yang
Zi, in a 5-set match that was closely fought. 
Defending champions Australia survived a scare before edging out New Zealand 4-2 on penalties to win back the women's hockey gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here this afternoon. The two teams could not resolve a 2-2 deadlock even after 15 minutes of extra time.
India completed their first-ever series whitewash of Australia as Sachin Tendulkar led them to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over the visitors in the second and final cricket Test here today.
