‘Pistol King’ Jitu Rai kept his reputation intact by clinching the gold medal before Gagan Narang and Gurpal Singh claimed a silver each to continue the shooters’ heroics while young Vikas Thakur overcame pain to bag silver in weightlifting on the fifth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
The 26-year-old Rai, world number 4 in the event, gave ample display of his class by taking the honour in the men’s 50 m pistol event as the Indian shooters continued to dominate the ranges.
Gurpal Singh also took the spotlight with his silver-winning effort in the same event while Narang, taking part for the first time in the 50 m rifle prone event, had to be content with a silver as the shooters did the bulk of the medal shopping during the day.
Writhing in pain, Thakur produced the lift of his lifetime to clinch the bronze in men’s 85kg weightlifting, as Indian lifters continued their spectacular show.
Thakur lifted 333kg (150+183) to bag the silver while Richard Patterson of New Zealand won the gold with a total lift of 335kg (151+184). Canada’s Pascal Plamondon was third with 333kg (151+182), but Thakur bagged the silver on lesser bodyweight.
Boxers progressStar Indian boxer Vijender Singh (75kg) continued his sublime form to enter the quarterfinals along with gritty youngster L Devendro Singh (49kg), but there was heartbreak for Shiva Thapa (56kg), who went down to Olympic bronze-medallist Michael Conlan of Northern Ireland. Manoj Jhangra, too, made the quarterfinals with a convincing win.
Vijender, a former Olympic and World Championships bronze-medallist, outpunched Namibia’s Mujandjae Kasuto 3-0 in a lopsided contest to make the last-eight stage.
Such was the former world number one’s domination that he managed a perfect 10 score from every judge in each of the three rounds.
Hammer thrower Narayan Singh Chandrodaya was the lone bright spot as he became the only Indian to qualify for the final round in a disappointing outing for the Indians on the second day of athletics meet.
India drew a blank in the badminton mixed team event after going down fighting to Singapore 2-3 in the bronze medal play-off.
Indian men’s table tennis team failed to secure a medal for the first time at the Games after being stunned 1-3 by Nigeria in the bronze medal play-off.
With the addition of four more medals, India’s overall haul swelled to 26 with seven gold, 12 silver and seven bronze and were placed seventh in the standings.
