Day 5 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games saw the first-ever gold medal in lawn bowls for the Indian women’s team. Three more medals were also won by India during the day.
The country has so far brought home 18 medals from Birmingham 2022. Sports plays a vital role in the individual life. Nearly 200 Indian competitors will be competing for gold in 16 different sports from July 28 to August 8 at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Neeraj Chopra, a silver medalist at the world championships and the champion javelin thrower at the Tokyo Olympics, withdrew late from the CWG 2022 owing to an injury. At the Commonwealth Games 2022, Indian athletes have so far taken home 18 medals, including five gold, six silver, and seven bronze.
In Birmingham, Sanket Sargar became the first Indian to take home a medal when he won silver in the men’s 55 kg weightlifting competition. The first Indian woman to win a gold medal in the CWG in 2022 was Mirabai Chanu, while the first Indian man to place first at the Birmingham Olympics was Jeremy Lalrinnunga.
India’s Lawn Bowls Tournament
In the lawn bowls tournament, Lovely Choubey, Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia, and Rupa Rani Tirkey won gold, India’s fourth medal of the Games, defeating South Africa 17-10 in the championship game. Not only was it the first-ever gold, but India also won its first-ever medal in the sport.
The South African team made a stunning comeback to move ahead 8-10 after 10 ends, but the Indian quartet did not have it easy. Their 8-2 advantage vanished in a flash.
The country staged a historic comeback with five ends left, scoring nine straight points without being answered to set a new record.
Table Tennis
India faced Singapore in the table tennis team competition for men’s teams. Men’s doubles action began with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai taking on Yong Quek and Yew Pang. The Indian duo dominated the Singaporeans 13-11, 11-7, and 11-5 until Zhe Yu Chew forced a tie with a valiant victory over veteran Sharath Kamal. 11-7, 12-14, 11-3 and 11-9.
When Sathiyan defeated Yew in the second singles match in a similar four-game fashion, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, India regained the lead. The game was then expertly concluded by Harmeet Desai, who destroyed Zhe with scores of 11-8, 11-5, and 11-6 to help India successfully retain their title.
Weightlifting Tournament
Every time they enter the arena, India’s weightlifters inspire hope. Today, Vikas Thakur in the men’s 96kg division took home silver with a total lift of 346kg.
He finished considerably behind Samoan heavyweight Don Opeloge, who broke the Games record with a monstrous 381kg lift, with top lifts of 155kg in the snatch and 191kg in the clean and jerk.
Punam Yadav, competing in the women’s 76kg division, did not make the board earlier due to a no-lift in the clean and jerk. Ushan Bannur placed sixth in the women’s 87 kg weightlifting competition.
Badminton Tournament
After falling to Malaysia 3-1 in the badminton mixed team final, the country won silver. In the opening doubles match, Aaron Chia and Soh Woo Yik defeated Satwik Sairaj and Chirag Shetty 21-18, and 21-15. however, PV Sindhu came back by defeating Jin Wei Goh 22-20, and 21-17.
After that, Kidambi Srikanth played in a singles match and lost against Ng Tze Yong 19-21, 21-6, 16-21. Teresa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were defeated by Malaysia’s Tinnah Muralitharan and Koong Le Pearly Tan to complete the victory. 21-18, 21-17.
Athletics
Day two’s marathons were followed by the start of the track and field competitions at Alexander Stadium on day five.
Murali Sreeshankar, the top male long jumper of the day with a best leap of 8.05m, gave the country an early victory. With a leap of 7.68 metres, teammate Muhammed Anees Yahiya also made it into the men’s long jump final, giving India two competitors.
With a throw of 16.78 metres, Manpreet Kaur qualified for the women’s shot put as well, placing fourth in her qualifying division.
Dutee Chand was disappointed in the women’s 100-meter heat, finishing fourth in 11.55 seconds and withdrawing from the competition.
Seema Punia, 39, finished fifth in the women’s discus throw final with a best throw of 55.92 metres. 2018 bronze medalist Navjeet Kaur Dhillon was eighth overall with a best effort of 53.51m.
Other results
In the men’s 200-meter backstroke, Srihari Nataraj qualified as the first reserve after placing third in his heat with a time of 2.00.84 minutes. Both Advait Page and Kushagra Rawat qualified from their respective men’s 1500m freestyle heats, with the former finishing in fourth place in 15.39.25 seconds and the latter in 15.47.77 seconds.
Sunayna Kuruvila won the inaugural women’s singles plate semifinal in squash with ease. Faiza Zafar of Pakistan was defeated by Sunayna 11-2, 11-4, and 11-5 But Saurav Ghosal lost to current British Open winner and former world number one Paul Coll of New Zealand in the men’s singles semifinals, winning 11-9, 11-4, 11-1.
Indian boxer Rohit Tokas (67 kg) defeated Ghanaian Alfred Kotey by a score of 5-0 to qualify for the men’s welterweight quarterfinals.
