The sporting action of the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games commenced in Birmingham, England on Friday. The Indian athletes were in action across 11 sports. Here’s a look at their results:
Boxing: Shiva Thapa outclassed Suleman Baloch of Pakistan. The former World Championship bronze medalist won by unanimous decision 5-0 in the opening round of the 63.5 kg category.
Badminton: India thrashed Pakistan 5-0 in the mixed team event in their first Group A match. Indian shuttlers didn’t drop a single set in any of their matches.
Cricket: The Indian women’s team lost to the Australian women by 3 wickets. Opting to bat first, India scored 154-8. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur 52 (34), Shafali Verma 48 (33) and Smriti Mandhana 24 (17) were the key contributors.
In reply, Renuka Singh’s spell of 4-0-18-4 reduced Australia to 34-4 in 4.1 overs. But Ashleigh Gardner 52* (35) took Australia home with the help of Grace Harris 37 (20) & Alana King 18* (16). Australia won with one over left.
Cycling: The young cyclists failed to progress to the medal rounds. In Men’s team sprint, the Indian team finished 6th with a timing of 44.702 while in women’s team sprint finished 7th with a timing of 51.4333. In Men’s team pursuit, the Indians were 6th with a timing of 4:12.865. The top 2 qualified for the gold medal race while the 3rd and 4th progressed to the bronze medal play-off.
Hockey: The World No.9 Indian Women’s team beat World No. 30 Ghana 5-0 in their first Pool A match.
Table Tennis: Both the men’s and women’s teams registered comfortable victories in their first two group matches.
The men beat Barbados & Singapore by an identical margin of 3-0. Women also won against South Africa and Fiji by similar scorelines.
Squash: 14-year-old prodigy Anahat Singh beat Jada Ross of Saint Vincent and Grenadines 11-5, 11-2, 11-0 in the first round of Women’s Singles. In the first round of Men’s Singles, Abhay Singh defeated Joseph S. Chapman of the British Virgin Islands 11-5, 11-5, 11-5.
Swimming: Srihari Nataraj has qualified for the final of Men’s 100m backstroke.
Nataraj clocked 54.68s to qualify for the semifinals of the men’s 100m backstroke event. The 21-year-old was the third in heat 4 and fifth fastest overall.
He finished 4th in his semifinal heat & 7th overall clocking 54.55 secs to make it to the final.
Olympian Sajan Prakash finished eighth in heat 6 with a timing of 25.01 men’s 50m butterfly event to finish 24th overall. Thus he failed to progress to the semis.
Kushagra Rawat could not advance to the final in the men’s 400m event. He finished 7th in his heat and 14th overall with a timing of 3:57.45s.
Para swimmer Ashish Kumar Singh finished 8th in the Men’s 100m Backstroke S9 final with a timing of 1:18.21.
Triathlon: In Men’s competition, Adarsh Nair and Vishwanath Yadav finished 30th and 33rd respectively among 46 competitors. Among Women, Pragnya Mohan and Sanjana Joshi were 26th and 28th among 33 participants.
Lawn Bowls: It was a disappointing day for India in Lawn Bowls as none of the Indians in action could record a victory.
Results:
Men’s pairs: India lost 14-17 to Malaysia.
Men’s triples: India lost 6-23 to New Zealand and 12-19 to Scotland.
Women’s Singles: Tania Chaudhary lost 10-21 against Dee Hogan of Scotland and 20-21 against Arthur-Almond of Falkland Islands.
Women’s Fours: India lost to England by 9-18.
Gymnastics: Satyajit Mondal registered a score of 13.475 in the men’s vault event and he is the 1st reserve for the final. Saif Tamboli with a score of 14.050 on parallel bars and he is also the first reserve for the final. If any finalists from the top 8 from their respective event pull out then they will get a chance to feature in the finals. Yogeshwar Singh finished 18th in all-around with a total of 73.600 and qualified for the final. The Indian team finished 8th overall in the all-around event.