Medal rush in Wrestling, Women’s Hockey team lose semi-final; another medal assured in Lawn Bowls: CWG 2022 Day 8 Roundup

Six wrestlers competed in the Commonwealth Games on Friday, August 5th, and each finished on the podium, bringing India’s total medal count to 26 – 9 gold, 8 silver, and 9 bronze.

Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, and Deepak Punia won gold medals at the Victoria Park Arena in Coventry, while Anshu Malik lost her gold medal match. Mohit Grewal and Divya Kakran both received bronze medals.

The Indian women’s hockey team meanwhile was defeated 3-0 in the penalty shootout after drawing Australia 1-1 in regulation time.

Here’s a rundown of India’s major results from Day 8 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games –

Wrestling

Indian wrestlers kicked off their campaign at the 2022 CWG on Friday, with each member finishing on the podium.

Bajrang was so dominant in the 65kg competition that he won three of his four bouts in the first round. Lachlan McNeil of Canada fought well in the final, but the Indian was far superior in technique and stamina, winning 9-2.

Sakshi Malik’s gold medal was the culmination of years of hard work and a struggle to return to winning ways after a lull in form following her Rio Olympics medal. In Birmingham, she trailed Ana Paula Gonzalez 4-0 before scoring on the counterattack and winning the match.

Deepak Punia (86kg) was calculated in his bouts and finished on top of the podium without dropping a single point. In the final against Muhammad Inam of Pakistan, the 23-year-old Indian outlasted Inam 3-0.

Anshu, who has made rapid progress in her career, dominated the women’s 57kg final but finished second with a silver medal.

In her first fight of the season, Divya faced the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist and 11-time African champion Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria. Divya won her repechage round against Blandine Nyeh Ngiri by fall after losing to her. Mohit Grewal (125kg) also won bronze, defeating Jamaica’s Aaron Anthony Johnson by fall.

Lawn Bowls

India is assured of a second lawn bowls medal after the men’s fours team advanced to the final.

Sunil Bahadur (lead), Navneet Singh (second), Chandan Kumar Singh (third), and Dinesh Kumar (skip) led India to a 13-12 semifinal victory over hosts England, ensuring India at least a silver medal.

Earlier in the day, the women’s team of Lovely Choubey and Nayanmoni Saikai were eliminated from the Games after losing in the quarterfinals.

Hockey

The Indian women’s hockey team was heartbroken after losing 0-3 in a shootout to four-time champions Australia after both teams were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time in the semifinal.

Rebecca Greiner gave Australia the lead in the 10th minute, but Vandana Katariya equalised for India in the 49th.

The Indians, on the other hand, would consider themselves unlucky because Ambrosia Malone missed her first attempt in the shootout for Australia. Still, the umpires gave her a second chance because the clock did not begin on time. She then made it 1-0, which Kaitlin Nobbs and Amy Lawton both converted. Lalremsiami, Neha Goyal, and Navneet Kaur all missed shots for India.

Athletics

The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team advanced to the Commonwealth Games final after finishing second in their qualifying heat.

Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Noah Nirmal Tom, Mohammed Ajmal, and Amoj Jacob of India took the automatic qualification route, clocking 3:06.97s to finish second in heat 2 behind Kenya. The final will take place on Sunday.

Hima, a star sprinter, was unable to advance past the semi-finals of the 200m event. The 22-year-old Assamese finished third in semi-final 2 with a time of 23.42 seconds, missing out on the final by the thinnest of margins as her time was just 0.01 seconds slower than the last qualifier.

Jyothi Yarraji, the national record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, crashed out in the first-round heats with a subpar performance.

Ancy Sojan also failed to qualify for the final of the women’s long jump. She finished 13th overall in the qualifying round with a best jump of 6.25m, which was wind-assisted (2.3m/s tailwind).

Badminton

PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, and Lakshya Sen all won easily to advance to the singles quarterfinals. Sindhu, a silver medalist in 2018, defeated Uganda’s Husina Kobugabe with little resistance, winning 21-10 21-9.

Srikanth, who finished second in Gold Coast, didn’t sweat on his way to a 21-9 21-12 victory over Sri Lanka’s Dumindu Abeywickrama in men’s singles.

Sen, a world championship bronze medalist, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 21-9 21-16 win over Australia’s Ying Xiang Lin, while Aakarshi Kashyap won 21-2 21-7 over Cyprus’ Eva Kattirtzi.

Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also cruised to a 21-8 21-7 victory over Pakistan’s Murad Ali and Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti to advance to the men’s doubles quarterfinals.

Table Tennis

Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal put on a spectacular performance to advance to the semi-finals of all three events in the competition.

The nine-time national champion, who has won up to ten CWG medals, advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals after defeating Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo 4-2 in a thrilling match. Along with his partners, the 40-year-old also advanced to the semi-finals of the mixed and men’s doubles competitions.

Women’s singles defending champion Manika Batra had a bad day, losing 0-4 to Jian Zeng of Singapore in the women’s singles quarterfinals to exit the competition. She and Sathiyan were also defeated 2-3 by Malaysia’s Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, while the men’s pairing of Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai were defeated 0-3 by Singapore’s Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Poh Shao Feng Ethan.

Sreeja, on the other hand, delivered outstanding performances to advance to the women’s singles semifinals, in addition to her mixed doubles performance. In her quarter-final match, the 24-year-old defeated Mo Zhang of Canada 9-11, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-8.

Gnanasekaran advanced to the men’s singles quarterfinals by defeating Nicholas Lum 4-2 at the NEC Hall. Sanil Shetty, on the other hand, was defeated 2-4 by Nigeria’s Bode Abiodun.

Squash

Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal advanced to the Commonwealth Games semifinals of the mixed doubles event. In the quarterfinals, the Indian duo defeated Rachael Grinham and Zac Alexander of Australia 11-9 11-5.

Velavan Senthil Kumar and Abhay Singh advanced to the men’s doubles quarterfinals with a 2-1 win over Scotland’s Douglas Kempsell and Alan Clyne. In the women’s doubles, Joshana Chinappa and Dipika were defeated 0-2 by Yiwen Chan and Ainaa Ampandi of Malaysia.