15 medals in Boxing, Athletics, and Table Tennis highlight India’s most successful day in the 2022 edition: CWG 2022 Day 10 Roundup
India had a Super Sunday at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, winning 15 medals, including 5 gold, 4 silver, and 6 bronze medals.
Achanta Sharath Kamal, 40, continued his age-defying run in Birmingham, winning gold in table tennis mixed doubles and bronze in men’s doubles. He is not finished, however, as he will compete for another gold medal in the men’s singles final on Monday.
The women’s hockey team went to a shootout once more, but this time they won the bronze medal, while the women’s cricket team lost the gold medal match to Australia by 9 runs.
Even as three boxers won gold medals on the final day of their competition, there was a historic 1-2 finish in the men’s triple jump that created more headlines.
Here’s a rundown of all of India’s major results from Sunday’s Commonwealth Games in 2022 –
Athletics
On Sunday, India’s track and field team won their most medals in a single day, with Eldhose Paul, Abdulla Aboobacker, Sandeep Kumar, and Annu Rani finishing on the podium.
Eldhose Paul led India’s historic 1-2 finish in the men’s triple jump as he bagged the gold and Abdulla Aboobacker won the silver. Paul produced his best effort of 17.03m in his third attempt while Aboobacker was not much behind as he finished at 17.02m, which he managed in his fifth attempt. Jah-Nhal Perinchief of Bermuda won the bronze with his best jump of 16.92m.
Sandeep Kumar finished third in the men’s 10,000m race walk with a personal best time of 38:49.21m, trailing gold winner Evan Dunfee (38:36.37) of Canada and Declan Tingay (38:42.33) of Australia.
Annu Rani, an experienced javelin thrower, also made history by becoming the first Indian female javelin thrower to win a medal, a bronze, with the best effort of 60m in her fourth attempt.
The men’s javelin throw final at the Commonwealth Games 2022 featured DP Manu and Rohit Yadav who finished fifth and sixth respectively. DP Manu made the best throw of 82.28m while Rohit Yadav managed to throw the spear at 82.22m in the final.
Boxing
Nikhat Zareen, Amit Panghal, and Nitu Ghanghas all won gold medals, while Sagar was defeated and will return with a silver medal, as India had another successful day in the boxing ring.
Amit Panghal also won a Gold medal for India at the 2022 Birmingham Games
Nikhat, who has been on a winning streak since the Nationals last year, punched her way to a 5-0 win over Northern Ireland’s Carly Mc Naul in her first CWG appearance. Panghal, on the other hand, avenged his 2018 Commonwealth Games final loss to Kiaran MacDonald by winning the title with a 5-0 victory over the favourite.
Nitu defeated England’s Demie-Jade Resztan by a 5-0 unanimous decision, while Sagar Ahlawat was defeated by England’s Delicious Orie by a 0-5 unanimous decision in the men’s over 92kg (super heavyweight) category.
The Indian boxers finished the CWG with seven medals, three gold, one silver, and three bronze, two fewer than the previous edition.
Hockey
The Indian women’s hockey team defeated defending champions New Zealand 2-1 in a shootout to win bronze, the team’s first CWG medal in 16 years.
India led the match 1-0 until they conceded a penalty corner with less than 30 seconds remaining before the final whistle. Olivia Merry equalised, forcing the game into a shootout.
Savita, India’s captain and goalkeeper, then demonstrated her class, making three spectacular saves to spark wild celebrations in the camp.
Cricket
Indian women’s team missed gold medal by a whisker and settled for silver
The Indian women’s cricket team succumbed to stage fright once more, falling by nine runs to mighty Australians in the gold medal match.
Despite a valiant fielding effort from India, Australia scored 161/8 thanks to Beth Mooney’s (61 off 41) stroke-filled half-century.
At one point, India’s chase was cruising, with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur scoring a half-century. They were 112/2 after 14 overs and needed 50 off the last six when things started to go wrong. Jemimah Rodrigues was clean bowled on the third ball of the 15th over, and Vastrakar and Kaur were bowled in the 16th. India eventually lost five wickets for 13 runs and lost the final by 9 runs.
Squash
Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal won bronze in mixed doubles against Australia’s Donna Lobban and Cameron Pilley to cap off India’s squash campaign.
The Indian duo, who won silver in the mixed team event at the 2018 Gold Coast edition, lost in the semifinals to Joelle King and Paul Coll, but won the bronze medal match 11-8, 11-4 on Sunday.
This is Ghosal’s second medal at the Games, having won India’s first ever singles medal, a bronze, earlier in the week.
Table Tennis
Sharath Kamal won his second the gold medal of the 2022 Birmingham CWG
On the penultimate day of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, 40-year-old Indian table tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal defied age to once again impress all.
On Sunday, he competed in three events and lost the men’s doubles final with G Sathiyan to England’s Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford. The Indian pair took silver for the second time in a row after losing 11-8, 8-11, 3-11, 11-7, 4-11.
Following that match, Sharath Kamal faced Paul Drinkhall again, but this time in the men’s singles semi-final, and won. Kamal advanced to his second CWG final by winning 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8.
Then, just hours later, Sharath Kamal won the mixed doubles gold medal with young Sreeja Akula. Javen Choong and Karen Lyne of Malaysia were defeated 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6.
In women’s singles, Sreeja Akula suffered a heartbreaking loss as she went down to Australia’s Yangzi Liu 3-4 in a close bronze medal play-off. Sreeja went down 11-3 6-11 2-11 11-7 13-15 11-9 7-11 after staging a slew of comebacks in a match that lasted more than one and a half hours.
Meanwhile, in men’s singles, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran missed a chance to set up an Indian final in CWG 2022 after losing to England’s Liam Pitchford 4-1 in the semi-final. Sathiyan fought back after losing the opening game but Pitchford found another gear to progress to the Gold medal match. Sathiyan will now play Sharath Kamal’s semi-final opponent Drinkhall in the bronze medal match tomorrow.
Badminton
World championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth and young women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand signed off with bronze medals in the badminton competition of the Commonwealth Games.
India is also assured of three more medals, with PV Sindhu, a double Olympic medalist, and debutant Lakshya Sen both advancing to the gold medal match in their respective categories. Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced to the men’s doubles final by defeating Malaysia’s Chen Peng Soon and Tian Kian Men 21-6, 21-15.
Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu was tested in her semi-final clash against Yeo Jia Min in the women’s singles event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist clinched the first game 21-19 in a closely fought contest. In the second game, Sindhu saw Yeo offer a fight once again but the former prevailed 21-17 to set up a final clash against Canada’s Michelle Li.
In the men’s singles badminton event, world No. 10 Lakshya Sen had to overcome a stiff challenge from upcoming Singaporean shuttler Jia Heng Jason Teh in the semi-finals. Lakshya Sen was pegged back after winning the first game but eventually finished on top by winning the semi-final 21-10, 18-21, 21-16.
For the gold on his CWG debut, Lakshya Sen will face rising Malaysian shuttler Tze Yong NG, who beat Kidambi Srikanth 13-21, 21-19, 21-10 in the other semi-finals.
In the men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty beat Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon-Tan Kian Meng 21-6, 21-15 to make their second straight CWG final. They will be up against Ben Lane and Sean Vendy of England in the final on Monday.