Historic Gold in Lawn Bowls, men’s table tennis team defends title; Mixed Badminton team settles for silver: CWG 2022 Day 5 Roundup

A historic gold medal in lawn bowls, followed by the men’s table tennis team defending their gold medal from 2018, a silver medal by weightlifter Vikas Thakur, and another from the badminton mixed team made it another successful day for India on Tuesday at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The two golds and two silvers on the day brought India’s total at Birmingham to 13 medals — five gold, five silver, and three bronze medals — moving the country up to sixth place in the medals’ standings.

Here’s a rundown of some of the major outcomes from Day –

Badminton

Only PV Sindhu won her match against Malaysia in the badminton ‘mixed team’ final, as India lost 3-1 and took home the silver medal.

The men’s doubles event began with Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty failing to beat Olympic bronze medalists Teng Fong Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh, as Malaysia took a 1-0 lead with a 21-18, 21-15 win. Sindhu then won her match 22-20, 21-17, before Kidambi Srikanth was defeated 21-19, 6-21, 21-16 by Tze Yong Ng, who is ranked 42nd in the world.

The world number 11 duo of Thinaah Muralitharan and Koong Le Pearly Tan of Malaysia then sealed the victory with a 21-18, 21-17 victory over lower-ranked Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly.

Weightlifting

Indian heavyweight lifter Vikas Thakur won silver in the men’s 96kg event at the Commonwealth Games. Thakur lifted 346kg (155kg+191kg) in total to finish second and earn his third CWG medal in three editions. It was Thakur’s second silver, having finished second in the 2014 Glasgow edition as well. On the Gold Coast, he had returned with a bronze.

Punam Yadav, on the other hand, finished last in the women’s 76kg division after failing all three clean and jerk attempts. Punam, the reigning CWG champion in the 69kg category, was in the silver medal position after snatching 98kg in her third attempt. However, she failed to clear 116kg in all three clean and jerk attempts and finished last.

Table Tennis

Harmeet Desai raised his game in the decisive singles as the Indian men’s table tennis team retained its Commonwealth Games gold medal after a close fight against Singapore.

World no. 121 Harmeet outsmarted 133rd-ranked Zhe Yu Clarence Chew 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 in the third singles to ensure India’s third gold men’s team medal in CWG history.

The gold was India’s seventh since the sport’s inception in Manchester in 2002. India was expected to beat Singapore but Clarence accounted for veteran Sharath Kamal in the first singles to level the match at 1-1.

Harmeet and Sathiyan had little difficulty getting past Yong Izaak Que and Ye En Koen Pang in the opening doubles. Sathiyan had given India a 2-1 lead with a 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4 victory over lower-ranked Pang.

Lawn Bowls

Lovely Choubey (lead), Pinki (second), Nayanmoni Saikia (third), and Rupa Rani Tirkey (skip) of India defeated South Africa 17-10 in the women’s fours final to win the sport’s first-ever Commonwealth Games medal.

The Indian team led 8-2 at one point, but the South African team of Thabelo Muvhango (lead), Bridget Calitz (second), Esme Kruger (third), and Johanna Snyman (skip) tied the game at 8-8. The Indians, on the other hand, held their nerve to pull away in the final three rounds.

Athletics

Murali Sreeshankar, the national record holder, topped the men’s long jump qualification round, storming into the finals alongside Muhammed Anees Yahiya, who qualified eighth best.

Meanwhile, Manpreet Kaur, a shot putter, also advanced to the final as one of nine athletes who failed to clear the automatic qualification mark of 18m but were among the top 12 performers.

Dutee Chand, India’s top sprinter, was eliminated from the CWG after finishing 27th overall in the preliminary heat races. The national record holder (11.17s) finished fourth in heat number 5 with a time of 11.55 seconds.

Discus throwers Seema Punia and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon finished fifth and eighth in the final, respectively, with below-par performances.

39-year-old Punia produced a best throw of 55.92m on her second attempt, but it was insufficient for a podium finish. She has a season’s best of 57.09m and a personal best of 64.84m which she had achieved way back in 2004.

Dhillon, who has a season-best of 58.03m, could only manage 53.51m in her sixth and final attempt, ending her campaign on a low note.

Boxing

Rohit Tokas (67kg) advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s welterweight category. The 29-year-old Delhi boxer notched a 5-0 win over Alfred Kotey of Ghana. Tokas is now just one win away from ensuring a medal.

Hockey

The Indian women’s hockey team struggled in their first real test of the Commonwealth Games, losing 1-3 to England in a Pool A match.

Giselle Ansley (3rd minute) deflected a penalty corner into the Indian goal, giving England an early lead. Tess Howard made it 2-0 in the 40th minute of the third quarter before Hannah Martin scored the team’s third in the final quarter (53rd).

With a few seconds remaining before the final whistle, India scored a consolation goal through Vandana Katariya (60th) courtesy of a penalty corner deflection.

Squash

Saurav Ghosal will compete for a bronze medal after losing to New Zealand’s Paul Coll in the men’s singles semifinals 9-11, 4-11, 1-11. Ghosal, ranked 15th in the world, will face the winner of Wednesday, August 3’s bronze play-off between England’s James Willstrop and Wales’ Joel Makin.

Swimming

Ace Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj bettered the best Indian time en route to a third-place finish in heat 2 but could not qualify for the final of the men’s 200m backstroke event. Nataraj clocked 2:00.84s to be the first reserve in the event. His previous best was 2:01.70s, which had come during the FINA World junior swimming championships in 2019.

Advait Page and Kushagra Rawat though qualified for the final of the men’s 1500m freestyle after finishing fourth in their respective heats.