Murali Sreeshankar’s Silver medal triumph in the long jump remains India’s only breakthrough: CWG 2022 Day 7 Roundup
The 2022 Commonwealth Games campaign has progressed in the second half in the city of Birmingham. The current phase of the mega event has slowed down the pace of participant nations in grabbing the laurels as it has scheduled the first rounds of many games in it. Australia is enjoying their stay at the pole position as it seems that their first-place finish is quite inevitable now.
Only a single podium finish for the Indian contingent from today while boxers have secured four medals which will be attained very soon. Despite only one addition to the medal tally, Team India retains its seventh position having won 5 Gold, 7 Silver and 7 Bronze medal honours. Hence ‘Parimatch News‘ brings you detailed reports of the performance of Team India on the Day 7 of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Badminton
PV Sindhu has also kick-started her Women’s Singles campaign after bagging Silver in the Mixed Team event. The Olympic double-medalist shuttler defeated Fatima Nabaaha from the Maldives to enter into the pre quarter-final stages where she will be summoned by the Ugandan opponent Husina Kobugabe. Sindhu showcased sheer dominance against Nabaaha by clinching the first two sets of the game on the scoreline of 21-4 and 21-11.
The Men’s star Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth also follows the footsteps of Sindhu to enter into the Round of 16 in his Singles category. Srikanth outclassed the Ugandan counterpart Daniel Wangaliya in straight sets by 21-9 and 21-9 to move ahead of Round of 32. Aakarshi Kashyap became the third Singles representative from the Indian contingent to make it to the pre quarter-final round after her walkover win over Pakistan’s Mahoor Shahzad.
Hockey
Hat-trick Hero Harmanpreet!
India defeated Wales in their final Pool B fixture to make a strong claim for the table-toppers position. They registered an emphatic victory over the Welsh opponent on a scoreline of 4-1 in favor of Team Blue. After this result, now England will have to beat Canada with a margin of 15 to overthrow the Indian Tigers from the pole position of Pool B.
The 26-year-old drag-flick specialist scored two goals in the second quarter (18′ & 19′) and one in the third quarter (41′) to bring up his second hat-trick of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Then the fourth and final goal from the Indian team was scored by the 27-year-old Gurjant Singh in the fourth quarter. Canada broke the scoreboard deadlock in the 55th minute through Gareth Furlong’s penalty corner conversion but it was too late for the Britishers to stage a comeback.
Athletics
The nation saw its Golden Girl, Hima Das in action at Commonwealth Games 2022 for the first time as she participated in the Women’s 200 metres heat. The 2018 Jakarta Adian Games double gold-medalist sprinter has qualified for the semifinal round of the event. She finished first in her first-round heat after clocking 23.42 seconds and advanced to the next round in style.
India had two representatives in Women’s Hammer Throw, Manju Bala and Sarita Singh but unfortunately, only one of them made it to the final stages. The 33-year-old Manju Bala booked her place in the final round after registering her best throw of 59.68m in her very first attempt. India’s only medal from Day 7 came from Track & Field as Murali Sreeshankar claimed Silver and missed out on Gold by the difference of second and third best jump.
Table Tennis
After the completion of the Men’s and Women’s team events, both sides have been dissolved and the Indian paddlers are now battling out in Singles and Doubles events. Table Tennis action began with Sanil Shetty and Reeth Tennison battling in the ‘Round of 64’ encounter of the Mixed Doubles event where they ended up on the losing side however, it remained India’s only defeat throughout the day. The Indian contingent won seven out of eight games while Sanil Shetty and Reeth Tennison also bounced back later on.
The defeat in the opening game was followed by two convincing victories of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Manika Bata and Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula in the Mixed Doubles category. Then the action turned to the Women’s Singles category where Reeth, Manika and Sreeja participated and all three of them emerged victorious. We witnessed four members of the Gold medalist Indian Men’s team pairing up as Shetty/Desai and Sharath/Sathiyan and storming into the pre quarter-final round.
Boxing
The Knockout Punch ft. Amit Panghal
Team Blue’s dominating run in this sport continues as four Indian boxers have assured medals in their respective categories. It all started with the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games gold-medalist Amit Panghal defeating Scottish Lennon Mulligan in the 48kg-51kg Flyweight category. Then Jasmine Lamboria of the Women’s 57kg-60kg Lightweight category won her quarter-final bout in a split decision on a 4-1 scoreline.
The debutant Sagar Ahlawat has also entered the medal round after beating Keddy Evans Agnes of Seychelles by 5-0 in a one-sided saga. Rohit Tokas also joined the trio to assure India yet another laurel from Boxing by thrashing Niue’s Xavier Mata’afa-Ikinofo via unanimous decision. As of today, the Indian boxers have confirmed seven medals to the nation from this sport and will start their conquest to turn these laurels into Gold from tomorrow onwards.
Squash
A fine day for the Indian contingent in the Table Tennis sport as it brought plenty of good news for the fans. A total of five Doubles pairs from Team Blue participated across Men’s, Women’s and Mixed events and only one of them lost their battle. Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu’s elimination from pre quarter-final stages of the Mixed Doubles event.
In a most buzzed game of the day, we saw the wife of Indian international cricketer Dinesh Karthik, Dipika Pallikal and the recent Men’s Singles Bronze medalist teaming up in the Round of 16 battle of Mixed Doubles. They defeated the Welsh duo of Emily Whitlock and Pater Creed on scorelines 11-8 and 11-4 to enter into the QF round.
Para Table Tennis
Double good news for the Indian contingent from Para Table Tennis as two parathletes hailing from Gujarat, Bhavina Patel and Sonalben Patel won their respective Day 7 battles. The day started with the Mehsana-born Bhavina winning her bout convincingly to advance into the semi-final round of women’s singles classes 3-5 semifinals. The Tokyo Paralympics Silver medalist got the better of Fijian paddler Akanisi Latu by 11-1, 11-5, and 11-1.
Another daughter of Gujarat, Sonalben Patel also made it to the semi-final stages of women’s singles classes 3-5 from Group 2. The 34-year-old lost the opening set against Nigeria’s Chinenye Obiora by 8-11 but went on to win the following four sets to emerge victorious. Meanwhile, Baby Sahana Ravi who was competing in women’s singles classes 6-10 ended up on the losing side against Australian Yang Qian.