Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: Indian Athletes shine as Hockey team in finals

The Commonwealth Games are now in its last few days, and every contingent is looking at the medals tally for their position. India has its eyes fixed on the 2nd position and will do every possible thing to outmanoever England to retain the second position.

India started early in the day as shooting came to India’s help once again. It was the turn of the women this time as Heena Sidhu and Anu Raj Singh grabbed the gold medal in the 10m air pistol pairs event. This was India’s 31st gold medal in the Delhi Commonwealth Games. A large portion of India’s gold has come through shooting, this was the 14th gold medal India won in shooting.

The evnt saw India, Canada and Australia tied for the gold medal position however after taking the shots into perspective India were adjudged Gold medal winners. Australia followed with the Silver and Canada had to be satisfied with the bronze.

Shera at the Commonwealth Games

It was a disappointing effort from Samresh Jung though as he could only manage a silver in his men’s 25 metre standard pistol pairs’ event along with Chandrasekhar Kumar Chowdhary.

It was a encouraging performance from Athletics as India won an amazing six medals. The sprinters team 4*100m won the gold for India in an inspiring performance. It was an unfortunate incident yesterday that brought coach PT Usha down to tears but she must have enjoyed the many medals that India won. India won a bronze in the triple jump too. The relay teams both men and women managed a bronze medal each today.

Such a performance from Indian athletes has not been seen before.

Meanwhile Ashwini Ponappa and Jwala Gutta are currently battling it out against the Australians in the women’s doubles event.

It was a good day for the Indian Table Tennis contingent as in the women’s doubles category Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak made it to the finals after they beat the Australian Pair of Miao Miao and J F Lay n a thrilling five setter. More good news from Table Tennis as Soumyadeep Roy battled his heart out against his competitor from Singapore to reach the semi-finals in the men’s singles. The Indian favorite Sharath Kamal had earlier failed to live upto the expectation as he bowed out.

But the most celebration worthy news of the day came from the men’s hockey team as they nudged their way past England in a thrilling match that went down to the wire. England who are ranked fourth in the world and were fourth in the World Cup earlier this year as compared to India’s seventh position, lost to India. India are ranked ninth in the world but this win means that India are now assured of atleast a silver ahead of teams like Pakistan, Malaysia, New Zealan and England.

The match went down to the penalty strokes as both the teams were not to be separated after the scheduled 70 mins and two periods of extra time. In the penalty shootouts Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri did the country proud by saving the third English attempt. Credit is to be given to Indian penalty takers who made a perfect five. As Shivendra Singh scored the last stroke, the crowd at Major Dhyan Chand Stadium erupted in joy.

The medals tally stands like this after todays events in the XIX Commonwealth Games at Delhi.

Country G S B TotalAustralia 64 42 40 146India 32 25 32 89England 28 51 36 115Canada 23 15 29 67South Africa 12 11 9 32