New Delhi, Wednesday, Aug 03, 2022: India matched their medal tally in weightlifting from the previous Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (CWG), when Lovepreet Singh in the Men’s 109kg category, won bronze on day six of the Birmingham 2022 CWG. Lovepreet effected a total lift of 355kgs including 163kgs in snatch and 192kgs in clean and jerk. Junior Nyabeyeu of Cameroon won gold with a total of 361kg while Samoan Jack Opeloge won silver with an effort of 358kgs. This was India’s ninth weightlifting medal of the Games, including three gold medals.
Purnima Pandey in the women’s 87+kg though, finished sixth with a total heave of 228kgs. The gold went at 286kgs, a commonwealth and games record, to England’s Emily Campbell.
Hussamuddin, Nitu through to semis
Another assured medal for India came in the Men’s 54kg-57kg Featherweight category in boxing where Md. Hussamuddin beat Namibian Tryagain Morning Ndevelo 4-1 on points to make it to the semi-finals.
Also reaching the semi-finals was Nitu Ganghas in the women’s 45kg-48kg minimum weight class, when Northern Ireland’s Nicole Clyde abandoned the fight in the final round after Nitu had easily won the first two rounds.
Tulika wins sliver
In Judo, Tulika Maan won a silver medal in the women’s 78+ kg section. She lost to Sarah Adlington of Scotland. Earlier she stormed thought to the final, thereby assuring India of another medal. The final is slated as the last bout of the evening session, late at night in India.
Tulika crafted two brilliant victories, both by way of Ippons, the highest score a fighter can achieve in a bout of Judo. She first won her quarter-final tussle against Tracy Durhone of Mauritania and then beat Sydnee Andrews of New Zealand in the semi-finals to make the title clash against Scotland’s Sarah Adlington.
Deepak Deswal in the men’s 100kg category was however on the other side of the spectrum, suffering two Ippons to bow out of the contest. Harry Lowell-Hewitt of England got the better of him first in the quarters, before Fijian Tevita Takayawa effected a throw down on him in the repechage round. This was after he has won his Round of 16 battle against Cameroon’s Eric Fouda.
Lawn Bowls success continues
There was further good news from the Lawn Bowls greens as Mridul Borgohain garnered two victories in Round 2 and Round 3 of the Sectional games in the men’s singles. He first beat Chris Locke of the Falkland Islands 21-5 and then Iain McLean of Scotland 21-19 in a nail-biter
In the Women’s Pairs, Lovely Choubey and Nayanmoni Saikia, fresh from their gold in the Women’s Fours, began the day with comfortable 23-6 win over Hina Rereiti and Olivia Buckingham of Niue, but were held 16-16 by South Africa in their next game
Wins in Hockey
India was also back to winning ways in women’s hockey after a reverse against England earlier and edged out Canada 3-2 in a hard-fought Pool A encounter. Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur and Salima Tete were on target for India while Hannah Haughn and Brienne Stairs scored for Canada.
The Men also consolidated their position at the top of Pool B with a 8-0 rout of Canada. The Indians scored in every quarter of the game with Gurjant, Mandeep, Lalit and Amit scoring for India along with braces from forward Akashdeep Singh and Harmanpreet Singh.
Other results
Also in squash, Sunayna Kuruvila won her Plate final against Guyana’s Mary Fung-a-Fat 11-7, 13-11, 11-2, in straight games. She finished fifth in the tournament.
In Para Table Tennis, India’s Raj Aravindan Alagar won 3-2, over George Wyndham of Sierra Leone. Raj won the Group 2 game 9-11,11-8, 11-0, 10-12 and 11-3 in the men’s singles classes 3-5 category.
BirSonalben Patel in the women’s singles classes also notched up victory beating England’s Sue Bailey 11-7, 11-5, 6-11 and 11-7 for a 3-1 verdict in her favour. Baby Sahan Ravi in the women’s singles classes 6-10 had a relatively easier outing in her first group match, winning 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 against Nigeria’s Faith Obazuaye.
IOA press release
