It was another successful day for India at the Commonwealth Games 2022 with six more medals added to the tally, courtesy of wrestling.
The Indian wrestlers were in prime form as Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Deepak Punia secured gold medals. However, there were moments of heartbreak as the Indian women’s hockey team suffered a semifinal exit at the hands of Australia.
Manika Batra was also dethroned on Friday and Hima Das had a day to forget.
WRESTLING: 6 MEDALS EARNED AS BAJRANG, SAKSHI AND DEEPAK SHINE
Six Indian wrestlers competed on the opening day of the competition at the Commonwealth Games 2022 and all 6 of them won medals. Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik along with young Deepak Punia won Gold medals, while Anshu Malik won Silver.
Divya Kakran and Mohit Grewal won bronze medals as Indian wrestlers continued their dominance at the Commonwealth Games.
BADMINTON: SEN, KASHYAP, JOIN SINDHU AND SRIKANTH IN QUARTERS
India’s badminton sensation Lakshya Sen continued his sparkling form at the Commonwealth Games with an easy win on Friday to book his place in the men’s singles category quarterfinals. Aakarshi Kashyap also registered a dominant win to join Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu in the final eight stages.
Sindhu will now face Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in the next round with a spot in the semifinals at stake. Former World No.1 Srikanth will take on England’s Toby Penty in his quarterfinal match.
Sen and Kashyap will face Paul Julien Georges of Mauritius and Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour respectively, for a spot in the semis.
TABLE TENNIS: MANIKA CRASHES OUT, KAMAL REACHES THIRD SEMIFINAL
Manika Batra’s title defence in women’s singles table tennis came to an early end as the Indian paddler was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. Jian Zeng of Singapore handed Manika a crushing straight games defeat in the last-eight round.
However, there was joy for Achanta Sharath Kamal as he reached his third semi-final of this year’s Commonwealth Games. He first paired up with Sreeja Akula to defeat Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho and then combined with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to beat Tom Jarvis and Sam Walker.
ATHLETICS: HEARTBREAK FOR HIMA DAS
India’s Hima Das agonisingly missed a berth in the women’s 200m final as she finished 10th overall in the semi-final at the Commonwealth Games 2022 on Friday, August 5. Hima missed out on the final berth by the barest of margins – 0-01s.
Hima Das finished 3rd in the 2nd of the 3 heats in the women’s 100m semi-final. She clocked 23.42s while Ella Conolly of Australia took the second spot and the automatic qualifying spot in Semi-final Heat 2 with a timing of 23.41s.
LAWN BOWLS: INDIAN MEN’S TEAM ASSURES MEDAL
The men’s fours team have assured India of a second lawn bowls medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, UK after they made it to the final.
The men’s fours team of Sunil Bahadur, Navneet Singh, Chandan Kumar Singh and Dinesh Kumar beat England 13-12 in a tense and thrilling semi-final at Victoria Park. The Indian men’s fours lawn bowls team will now take on Northern Ireland in the final on Saturday.
ATHLETICS: INDIA RELAY TEAM INTO FINAL
India’s men’s 4x400m relay squad of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Noah Nirmal Tom, Mohammed Ajmal and Amoj Jacob clocked 3:06.97 and finished second in the heats to reach the final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022.
PARA TABLE TENNIS: BHAVINA ASSURES MEDAL
India’s Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel assured herself a medal in the Commonwealth Games 2022 after storming into the final of the women’s para table tennis singles (classes 3-5) by beating England’s Sue Bailey.
Patel, the silver medallist in the Tokyo Paralympics, won her match in straight sets, 11-6, 11-6, 11-6.
HOCKEY: INDIA WOMEN’S TEAM SUFFERS SHOOTOUT HEARTBREAK
The Indian women’s hockey team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals after a 3-0 shootout loss to Australia after the game ended 1-1 in regular time.
Rebecca Grenier scored for Australia while Vandana Katariya got the goal for India.
In the shootout, the Indian eves failed to score from any of their attempts. They will now fight New Zealand for bronze on Sunday.
SQUASH: DIPIKA-SOURAV INTO SEMIS, CHINAPPA AND DIPIKA OUT OF WOMEN’S DOUBLES
Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal progressed to the semifinals of the mixed doubles event in the squash competition at the Commonwealth Games.
The Indian duo beat Rachael Grinham and Zac Alexander of Australia 11-9 11-5 in the quarterfinals.
However, reigning world champions Joshana Chinappa and Dipika lost 0-2 to Malaysia’s Yiwen Chan and Ainaa Ampandi in the women’s doubles.
Velavan Senthil Kumar and Abhay Singh also had a good day in office as they scripted a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Scotland’s Douglas Kempsell and Alan Clyne to advance to the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles event.
The Indian duo beat the Scottish pair 8-11 11-10 11-8 in the round of 16.
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