New Delhi: It was not the golden start India would have been hoping for but there was plenty to cheer on the opening day of competition in the 19th Commonwealth Games here on Monday. The weightlifters pulled in two silver medals and as many bronzes on a day eight golds were up for grabs to see the hosts in seventh place overall in the medals tally.
Women lifters N. Soniya Chanu and A. Sandhya Rani Devi failed to hold back Nigeria’s Augustina Nkem Nwaokolo in the 48-kg class at the Nehru Stadium complex, finishing second and third with combined lifts of 166 and 165 kg respectively, well short of the Nigerian’s Games record haul of 175 kg.
There was more heartbreak for the hosts at the weightlifting arena Monday evening. The unsung Sukhen Day strained every nerve and sinew along with Srinivas Rao against defending champion Aminul Islam Hamizan of Malaysia in the 56-kg class but fell agonisingly short in the final round of lifts. Dey took silver with 252 kg ahead of Rao’s effort of 248 kg.
Ibrahim was in a class of his own in hauling 257 kg, that included a Games record of 116 kg in the snatch category.
In the pool, the men’s 4x100m freestyle squad of Virdhawal Khade, Aaron Dsouza, Arjun Jayaprakash and Anshul Kothari clocked 3:28.06 to enter the final, finishing sixth in their event at the S.P. Mukherjee Aquatics Complex.
Badrinath Melkote clocked 27.52 seconds to qualify for the semifinals of the men’s 50m backstroke and Subha Chittaranjan was through to the semis of the women’s 50m butterfly in a time of 29.96.
On the badminton court, the home side thrashed Kenya 5-0 in a group encounter at the Siri Fort complex. They face Barbados next.
National champion Chetan Anand led the way with a bloodless 21-7, 21-13 win over Victor Munga. World number three Saina Nehwal then saw off Mercy Joseph 21-11, 21-13 in the women’s singles.
In the men’s doubles, Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar routed Victor Munga and Patrick Ruto 21-5, 21-5, and Ashwini Ponappa and Aparna Balan made short work of Mercy Joseph and Anitah Alube 21-8, 21-6 in the women’s doubles before Jwala Gutta and V. Diju too eased past Ng’ang’a Anna Njambi and Gituku Fredrick Chomba 21-8, 21-5.
Tennis proved to be a mixed bag as Rohan Bopanna and Rushmi Chakravarthy won comfortably in the singles first round at the R.K. Khanna Stadium before the former, in association with Nirupama Sanjeev, crashed out of the mixed doubles.
India’s top mixed doubles pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza waltzed into the second round with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over the St. Lucian duo of Stacie Nykita Roheman and Alberton Richelieu.
Bopanna swamped Robert Buyinza of Uganda 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and Chakravarthy handed a double bagel to Agnes Monthla of Lesotho in just 45 minutes. The youngest member of the women’s team, Poojashree Venkatesha, also started impressively, beating Nthabiseng Einicia Nqosa of Lesotho 6-0, 6-0 in just 39 minutes.
Bopanna and Nirupama went down to top-seeded Australians Antastasia Rodionova and Paul Hanley 3-6, 6-3, 3-6.
The Indian men’s squash team made a steady start to their campaign with Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Siddharth Suchde going through to the second round on the opening day of the singles event at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here, though world-rank 365 Sandeep Jangra, however, went down fighting to the 14th seed Australian Ryan Cuskelly.