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India rout Pak 7-4, enter semis
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Somdev overcomes Jones for gold
Sushil asserts superiority in style
2nd shooting gold for Harpreet
Cakewalk win for Saina
Vijender, Jai Bhagwan unstoppable
Australian presence all pervasive
Wrestling to stay in C’wealth Games
Hussain wins Pak’s first wrestling gold in 40 yrs
Sachin steadies India, completes 14,000 runs
Modi: Royals, KingsXI termination illegal
India regain No. 2 spot
Ticketing head sacked over irregularities
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India rout Pak 7-4, enter semis
New Delhi, October 10 The win gives India its maiden entry in the medal round of the hockey competition of the Games. The hero of the day was undoubtedly Sandeep Singh, who not only scored first two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game by converting two of four penalty corners earned till then but also played the brain behind the next three goals. It was his mighty swipe that put forward Shivendra Singh in possession inside the Pakistani striking circle to give a charged audience yet another chance to roar with the home team's third goal. And before the game was 19 minutes old, Sandeep engineered yet another goal for the team that needed a win desperately to make the semi-finals. His flick from the sixth penalty corner got deflected from a defender's stick to unmarked Sarvanjit Singh who made full use of the opportunity to put India 4-0 ahead. Other than Sandeep, Sardara Singh, as usual, played a superb game. Danish Mujtaba, Rajpal, Dharamvir, Shivendra Singh, too sparkled in a game where every member of the home team gave his best. Green shirts did try to stage a come back in the game by getting two goals in quick succession before the teams broke for the lemon break. It was Muhammad Imran who struck the first goal for them. He scored from a penalty stroke after Vikram Pillay had taken the shot of Rehan Butt on his foot on the goal line. Rehan was attempting to connect a rebound after Muhammad Imran had taken a powerful flick at Indian goal from the second penalty corner of his team. Four minutes later in the 30th minute Rizwan latched on a free hit to beat Chhetri in Indian goal to make the score 2-4 for Pakistan. Four minutes in to the final session, it was Danish Mujtaba who pounced on a rebound from strong flick by Sandeep Singh from the 10th penalty corner of the home team. Seven minutes later, it was Shivendra Singh who worked his way down the goal line from the left flank and sent a back pass for Dharamvir to notch up India's sixth goal and his fourth of the tournament. Indians conceded the third goal from the sixth penalty corner. A series of exchanges saw Rehan Butt finally slamming the ball home. India retaliated with Rajpal working out an excellent move for Shivendra Singh to finish it off with India's seventh goal.
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Best-ever show by Indian athletes
New Delhi, October 10 Women long jumper Malliakkal Prajusha was pipped to the post for gold by Canadian Alice Falaiya who leapt 6.50m in her sixth and last jump to emerge winner ahead of the Indian who finished second with 6.47m. After the fifth round, Prajusha was leading with 6.47m which she did in her fourth attempt before the Canadian broke the hearts of the nearly 50,000 strong supporters who waited with bated breath with the expectation that the country will finally bag its first gold medal since 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh won a yellow metal in 1958 in Cardiff in the then 440 yard race. When Alice Falaiya cleared 6.50m in her last jump, the near capacity crowd at the showpiece stadium was stunned to pindrop silence. Prajusha made one last effort to better the Canadian but could not and had to settle for silver. "In my last two jumps my left calf was tight. That has affected my performance. But I am not disappointed as I have given my best. I thought I would win the gold but could not at the end. I thank the crowd for their support," she said later. Before Prajusha's feat, Vikas Gowda won a silver in men's discus throw as India enjoyed their best day in athletics on the fifth day of competition. United States-based Gowda, who also holds the national record of 64.96m, finished second with a throw of 63.69m, his season's best. Australia's Benn Harradine, the season's leader among Commonwealth discus throwers, won gold by clearing a distance of 65.45m while Carl Myerscough bagged the with an effort of 60.64m. With the two silver medals today, India have bagged four medals in athletics so far in the Delhi Games with Kavita Raut (women's 10,000m race) and Harminder Singh (men's 20km walk race) having already won a bronze each. This is the best performance of Indian athletes in any Games, the next best being in 2006 in Melbourne where they had won medals in three events -- silver in women's 4X400m relay, silver in women's discus throw by Seema Antil and bronze in men's para sport discus throw by Ranjith Kumar Jayaseelam. But the historic day was marred by Gowda lashing out at Athletics Federation of India for not giving him accreditation or at least a pass to his father Shive Gowda to accompany him on the field as coach. "My father was my coach before I went to United States for training. So I wanted him to be on the field as I need a coach. But that was not possible. I have been telling the federation to give him an accreditation. I requested them on October 1 to do this," he added. — PTI
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Somdev overcomes Jones for gold
New Delhi, October 10 Serving for the match in the sixth game of the second set, after taking a 5-0 lead, Somdev created some trepidation among the fans in the packed stands when he double-faulted to muff the chance and eventually lost the game. He had fired an ace earlier to get at the match point, but suddenly, his game cracked, and after Jones held serve in the seventh game, it took Devvarman two faulty returns to regain his tough, hold his serve, win the match and lift gold. India had to finally settle for just the lone goal won by Devvarman, in addition to the silver (Sania Mirza in women's singles) and two bronze medals (Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi in men's doubles) and Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakarvarthi (in women's doubles). |
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Sushil asserts superiority in style
New Delhi, October 10 All in all, at the final day of wrestling today, India bagged gold, two silver and one bronze, taking the tally in wrestling to 10 gold, five silver and three bronze medals. Anuj Kumar in the 84-kg category and Joginder in 120-kg category brought home two silver medals. Even though ace wrestler Anil Kumar couldn’t make it to the finals, he took just 33 seconds to beat Craig Pilling of Wales with a perfect pin down to win bronze in men's freestyle 55-kg event. Giving a thunderous start to the day, Sushil took down South African opponent Barnes Heinrich with a neat 7-0 in his final bout winning gold in the 66-kg category. Sushil, who made history by winning gold in world wrestling championship last month, stormed into the final after he pinned Jarjou Famara of Gambia in mere nine seconds with the first move of the semi-final bout. Earlier, he wrapped up his bout with Australia’s Tarash Mehrdad in just 40 seconds; while with Pakistan’s Salman Muhammad it took him a mere 46 seconds to qualify to the semifinals. The day’s second medal for the country came from Anuj Kumar in the 84-kg freestyle category.
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2nd shooting gold for Harpreet
New Delhi, October 10 Incidentally, Harpreet has completed a golden double now. Yesterday he paired up with Vijay to win pairs 25-m centre fire pistol event. In the four finals decided today, India ended with gold, silver and a bronze medal besides drawing a blank in the women’s section. Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who was tied at third place with Adam Vella with an identical score of 144, however, won the tie-breaker to get the bronze. Yesterday, Manavjit and Mansher Singh had bagged silver in the pairs trap. Men’s singles trap gold went to Aaron Heading of England. The secret behind his success, admitted Aaron Heading in his post event media interaction, has been the Indian curry. “For missing only four shots in the last three days of competition,” he said, “ the secret has been curry. The curry in the Games Village. There is a special curry there and it is called Honey Chicken. I think, and that is my secret.” Michael Diamond of Australia got the silver. In the singles 25-m centre fire pistol, gold medal winner Harpreet Singh was not fully satisfied with his performance today. ‘I could have scored a little better. I will now try it in the Asian Games.” “I was feeling the pressure not only from my team mate Vijay, but also from others. I still managed to concentrate on my techniques. I was missing the target at the start. All shots were going 9.9. Later when I got the rhythm, then every shot was hitting the bulls’ eye,” Harpreet Singh said after the event. In the women’s section, Suma Siddarth Shirur and Kavitha Yadav occupied fourth and fifth position in the singles 10-m air rifle event. The gold went to Singapore’s Xiang Wei Jasmine, who set a new record of 501.7 while Nur Ayuni Halim and Nur Suryani Mohammad Taibi, both of Malaysia, took silver and bronze medals, respectively.
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Cakewalk win for Saina
It was day of achievements for all the Indian shuttlers in the singles and double category winning their respective matches in the individual badminton event of the CWG on Sunday. World number three Saina thrashed Sarah Thomas of Wales 21-5 21-9, while Melbourne bronze medallist Chetan Anand beat Nigerian Ola Fagbemi 21-12 21-6 in 21 minutes to stay on course of bettering his record at the sporting extravaganza. Debutants P Kashyap and Aditi Mutatkar also stormed into the third round in the singles event with straight-game victories in their second round match. Sixth seed Kashyap saw off 21-5 21-12 Jamaican Pyne Charles, while Pune girl Aditi, seeded fifth, took 17 minutes to make short work of Sri Lankan Subodha Kumari 21-14 21-7 in another match at the Siri Fort sport complex here. Mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju, who got a bye in the first round, also stormed into the next round with a 21-13 21-8 spanking of Jamaican Henry Gareth Andre Theodore and Kristal Karjohn Fayonne in a 14-minute match. Ranked as world number three, Sania said she had set her eyes on gold medal. "Our team is in good form and we hope to continue with the same spirit. My target is to win gold now. We have worked very hard for it," said Nehwal. Talking about the tough competition she might face in the next matches, Saina said that the fight is going to be really tough. Everyone who has come for the tournament is a good player and I can't take anyone lightly," said Saina. "I'm really happy for the team and I'm feeling very proud that we won the Silver medal," said Saina Nehwal, as she wins India the silver medal in the mixed doubles. Praising the crowd and the support in the stadium, Saina said, "It is amazing to win in front of the home crowd. The whole team gave their 100 per cent and this is a memorable win for all of us," "I have had a good team event and I hope to continue with the same form. My aim is to win a gold medal and I am very focussed right now," said Saina. When asked about her experience of staying at the games village, Saina said, "It is a very good place. Everything is good and I'm really enjoying every bit of it."
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Vijender, Jai Bhagwan unstoppable
New Delhi, October 10 While Jai beat Waheed Sogbamu of Nigeria 10-0 to become the third boxer to enter the semis, Vijender beat Elias Nashivela of Namibia (RCS) and Dilbagh got the better of Moabi Mothiba of Botswana. The other two Indian boxers already in the semis are Amandeep Singh (49kg) and Suranjoy Singh (52kg), who had won their bouts yesterday. Vijender, who had completely dominated his previous bout as well, was in his element once again as he finished the bout in just two punches. The Indian was leading 1-0 when he landed a solid right on his opponent who could not handle it and lost his balance. The referee, after assessing him, stopped the contest and handed it to the Indian ace. But for 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Akhil, it was heartbreak. He who lost 5-7 to Julie in a match that could easily have gone either way. Akhil was unlucky in terms of the draw he had got and was given one of the early fights in the day after an extremely exhausting win last night over England’s Iain Weaver. The first round was a close one and the two were tied at 1-1. But the second round, despite both boxers taking a defensive approach, ended 3-2 in favour of Julie. The Mauritian then used some good counter punching in the last round to wrap up the proceedings in his favour. Jai Bhagwan was visibly ecstatic after his win that means he gets a chance to back up his Gold at the Commonwealth Championships at the same venue in March. “A medal here would be life-changing for me especially if it ends up being a gold medal. I would get fame and there would be financial benefits as well,” said Jai. He also dedicated his medal to star boxer Vijender. “I dedicate this medal to Vijender because he was the one who motivated me,” he added.
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Australian presence all pervasive
New Delhi, October 10 While Australian athletes are out to reassert their supremacy as the sporting leader of the Commonwealth nations, presence of the down under companies and teams at key positions and services in the organising committee (OC) are surprising. Since day one, Australia has maintained its numero uno position in the medals tally. Their athletes - swimmers and cyclists - have little or no major opposition. Australians also have presence in important areas like protocol, ceremonies and security. Interestingly, the synthetic surfaces on which hockey matches are played at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium are also supplied by an Australian company. Even kitchen services in the Games Village are handled by an Aussie group. Though Indian food, especially curry and tandoori chicken, has found favour with worldwide palate, Australian company Delaware North has been assigned the task of looking after the food requirements of players and officials attending the Games. The Games Village kitchen has been commissioned at a cost of about $4 million to make it the biggest commercial kitchen of the subcontinent. To run the kitchen and produce more than 30,000 meals a day, it has 1,500 employees, including 250 chefs, six of them foreigners. |
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Wrestling to stay in C’wealth Games
New Delhi, October 10 Michael Cavanagh, Chairman, Commonwealth Games, Scotland, confirmed that men’s freestyle wrestling will be 100 per cent there in Glasgow. Inclusion of women’s freestyle and men’s Greco-Roman may be added depending upon the Commonwealth Games Federation Sports Review scheduled for 2011. Reacting to the apprehensions expressed by the President of the Indian Wrestling Federation, Gurdial Singh Mander, Cavanagh said there has never been any consideration to drop wrestling from the 2014 Games. For the hosts India, wrestling has been one sport from which India has been getting good number of medals. And India in building its new image as a sporting power has its expertise in wrestling to showcase to the rest of the world. The opposition to the move to drop this sport from future edition of the Games was understandable. On Sunday morning before the start of competitions, nine of 24 gold medals the host country has won in the Games so far came from wrestling. And India has been hopeful to emerge the largest gold medal winner in the sport. The popularity of wrestling has touched a new high after Sushil Kumar won a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. His bronze, second for India, came after 52 years as KD Jadhav, in whose name the wrestling arena has been named, won the country’s first medal in any summer Olympic Games. And when the bouts resumed this morning, the KD Jadhav Stadium was packed as the ardent lover of this traditional Indian sport had gathered to catch a glimpse of their hero. In fact, the fans had been longing to get a fresh glimpse of their world champion and Olympic bronze medallist whom they last saw carrying Queens Baton to Prince Charles at the glittering opening ceremony on October 3. Sushil Kumar’s opening bout against Mehrdad Tarash, a Cameroon-born Australian, lasted less than thirty seconds. The Indian hero went for an instant kill and the bout was over even before the cheering and chanting spectators could settle in their seats. Mehrdad Tarash in his post-bout interaction with media said that his 30-second tryst with India’s second major sporting hero after Sachin Tendulkar has been one of most memorable moments in his life. At home, he said, not even a few hundred watch me grapple. “And today, I not only fought Sushil Kumar but also his die-hard 7,000-odd spectators who witnessed the bout,” commented Tarash. “It was unbelievable. I could not hear anything. As soon as we walked out to the arena, the stadium erupted, the noise was massive. I was prepared for that but not prepared enough obviously. He is the national hero and a superstar. People have been waiting for him for 10 days to come out,” remarked Tarash.
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Hussain wins Pak’s first wrestling gold in 40 yrs
New Delhi, October 10 Pakistan national wrestling championHussain gave an impressive performance today of clever footwork and brute strength to take Welson out by a fall in the second session. Earlier in the Games, Hussian won the first silver medal for his country in Greco-Roman wrestling.“We don’t have the proper Greco-Roman coaches, but still we went for it,’ Pakistan’s head freestyle coach MH Omar said.
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Sachin steadies India, completes 14,000 runs
Bangalore, October 10
Ponting, was one of the first among the opposition players to come up and congratulate Tendulkar for his achievement. Today, Tendulkar also became the highest run getter among batsmen who played Test matches at Chinnaswamy Stadium scoring in excess of 600 runs, thus eclipsing Sunil Gavaskar's total. Compared to both Virender Sehwag and Rahul David, Tendulkar was more composed and not perturbed but went about his job in his inimitable style. Tendulkar reached the milestone, when he punched off-spinner Nathan Hauritz through the cover point region. He looked in good touch throughout his innings today. Opener Sehwag, a prolific batsmen aggressive methods of counter attack did not work to his advantage and Dravid was done in by left arm pacer Johnson. Dravid has been dismissed six times by left-arm bowlers during the past season. The start for the Indian reply to Australia’s huge first innings total of 478 was shaky as Sehwag survived two run-out chances. — PTI Scoreboard Australia (1st innings) Watson c Dhoni b Ojha 57 Katich c Dravid b Singh 43 Ponting lbw Raina 77 Clarke c Raina b Singh 14 Hussey c Sehwag b Khan 34 North c Sreesanth b Singh 128 Paine st Dhoni b Ojha 59 Johnson lbw Ojha 0 Hauritz run out 17 Hilfenhaus not out 16 George st Dhoni b Singh 2 Extras: (b9, lb12, w1, nb9) 31 Total: (all out in 141 overs) 478 Bowling: Khan 23-5-84-1, Sreesanth 21-1-79-0, Ojha 42- 7-120-3, Singh 43-3-148-4, Sehwag 4-1-7-0, Raina 8-1-19-1 India (1st innings) Vijay batting 42 Sehwag c Johnson b Hilfenhaus 30 Dravid c North b Johnson 1 Tendulkar batting 44 Extras: (b4, lb2, w5) 11 Total: (for 2 wkts in 34.2 overs) 128 Bowling: Hilfenhaus 9-2-18-1, Johnson 7-2-30-1, George 5-1-18-0, Hauritz 11.2-0-45, Clarke 2-0-11-0
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Modi: Royals, KingsXI termination illegal
New Delhi, October 10 "The status of all teams is the same. They were all approved. There is no ambiguity as far as that is concerned. The action it totally illegal," Modi wrote in his favourite medium, Twitter. "Instead of concentrating on building IPL and BCCI, they have chosen a path of vengeance and in that they will only hurt the game," he wrote in the micro-blogging website. Pointing fingers at the Board's secretary N Srinivasan, Modi said: "All illegal things done by Chennai Super Kings and its owners have been overlooked by BCCI. Why? Who is running the show. What has Srinivasan got om (sic) them?" He further alleged that anyone who objects to the president-elect has to face the wrath of the BCCI adding that he is glad not to be a part of the current set up.Modi said the teams make the IPL and the BCCI's action would harm its own image and that of the successful tournament. "They are hell bent on destroying something that we as Indians are proud of -- the IPL. So as to satisfy there personal agendas," Modi wrote."BCCI's total disregard for franchisees and there stakeholders only goes to show that BCCI has lost the ability to administer sensibly," he added. Modi wrote the game is bigger than the organisation and the IPL owners should get together and run the league on there own.He also said it's time to reveal all facts as to how the BCCI has sheltered the men at the helm of affairs. — PTI
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India regain No. 2 spot
New Delhi, October 10 Teenager Deepika Kumari and Rahul Banerjee won gold medals in individual recurve events on the last day of the competition to help India end their campaign in archery with three
golds, one silver and four bronze medals. Besides these two titles, India also bagged two bronze medals in archery through senior pros Dola Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar in the individual recurve event. World freestyle wrestling champion Sushil Kumar and boxing pin-up boy Vijender Singh came up with thundering displays that fetched them a gold and a spot in the semi final respectively. Pistol shooter Harpreet Singh and tennis player Somdev Devvarman were the others to fetch gold medals for India to boost the overall tally to 29, just one short of their record tally of 30 won eight years ago at Manchester. There were also two silver medals from athletics during the day, a discipline in which India have never won more than one medal at any single Games in the past and now have claimed four here. Field athletes Vikas
Gowda, in men's discus, and Malliakal Prajusha, in women's long jump, won the two silver medals. To cap a great day, the Indian men's hockey team shed their nerves when faced with a do-or-die situation and hammered arch-rivals Pakistan 7-4 to qualify for the semi finals. Barring Akhil Kumar, who was knocked out in the quarter finals, most other medal contenders in the boxing ring took their places in the semis with Vijender's knock-out of his Elias Nashivela in just over a minute being the most impressive one.
— PTI |
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New Delhi, October 10
Bangalore, October 10
New Delhi, October 10
Tendulkar's feat was watched by a packed Chinnaswamy stadium crowd and the maestro got a standing ovation from all present in the stadium. Australian captain, Ricky Ponting remains Tendulkar's nearest rival but the Aussie is still behind by 1822 runs.
