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CWG update, Day 1: Lifter Sukhen claims India's second silver

Last updated on: October 04, 2010 21:33 IST

Hamizan Amirul Ibrahim won the men's 56-kg weightlifting event to claim Malaysia's first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Monday.

Ibrahim set a new Games mark of 116 kg in the snatch to claim first place with a total of 251 kg, after he lifted 140 in the clean and jerk.

Commonwealth Games 2010

India's Sukhen Dev, 21, provided a stiff challenge to the winner but had to eventually settle for silver. The young lifter totalled 252, with a best of 112 in the snatch and 140 in the clean and jerk to claim India's second silver medal of the day.

Srinivasa Rao completed the double in the event for India, claiming bronze with a total of 248 in the two categories.

Hockey: Indian women held by Scotland

Reigning silver medalists India were held to a 1-1 draw by lowly Scotland in their opening Pool A match of the women's hockey event at the Commonwealth Games, at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Monday.

The Indians fought back from a 0-1 deficit and scored through Jasjeet Kaur Handa (45th minute) after Scotland took the lead in the third minute from a Holly Gram field goal.

Indian archers dominate on opening day

Indian archers kicked off their campaign in style, the men's and women's recurve teams finishing on top.

Thanks to their impressive showings, the hosts will be ranked No 1 in the men's and women's section going into Tuesday's elimination round.

Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar topped the men's section, while Deepika Kumari and Dola Banerjee dominated the women's field.

Former World champion Deepika scored 609 and that was enough to claim top position in the women's individual recurve section, with compatriot Dola Banerjee finishing second best.

England, as expected, left a mark on the opening day, with Larry Godfrey, Simon Terry and Naomi Folkard finishing second in the team event.

In the men's individual compound section, South African Septimus Cilliers sealed the number one spot, edging out Duncan Busby of England and New Zealand's Stephen Clifton.

There was also joy for Canada as it topped the women's compound section, thanks to Doris Jones's superb score of 698.

England's Nicky Hunt too performed well, scoring 697 and securing the number two ranking.

The Indian archery team is looking to hit the bull's eye despite being up against a formidable field in a sport that returned to the Commonwealth Games after a gap of 28 years.

16 medals (gold, silver and bronze) are up for grabs in the archery event.

Le Clos grabs gold for South Africa

South Africa's Chad Le Clos struck gold in a 200m butterfly race blown wide open by the absence of world number two Nick D'Arcy who failed to qualify.

Le Clos, 18, overtook England's Michael Rock, who led at 100m and 150m, to stretch away for his country's first gold in the pool in a new Games record of 1:56.48.

Rock, 23, held on for silver while Canada's Stefan Hirniak got bronze.

Rock's silver is the 100th for England's Commonwealth Games Association. Only Australia (169) and Canada (109) have claimed more silver medals in swimming at the Commonwealth Games.

200m medley gold for Australia's Coutts

Australia's Alicia Coutts made a splash with a win in the women's 200m individual medley.

The 23-year-old Queenslander was behind as teammate Elimy Seebohm showed her form in the backstroke and butterfly, but capitalised on the 18-year-old's weaker breaststroke to pull away going into the freestyle leg.

She kept her lead and finished nearly a second ahead of her rival in a new Games record of 2:09.70.

Stratford, Ontario swimmer Julia Wilkinson picked up Canada's first medal in the pool by taking bronze, topping a fourth in the Pan Pacifics in August.

Australia's Palmer powers to 200m freestyle gold

Australia's Kylie Palmer won the first swimming gold, powering her way to victory in the women's 200m freestyle and setting Australia on course to retain top spot in the pool.

The 20-year-old struck out after the second turn and touched home in 1:57.50 but the battle for the other podium positions went down to the wire, with Wales' Jaz Carlin and England's Rebecca Adlington winning silver and bronze.

The top six women all swam under 1:59, with the early race leader Genevieve Saumur from Canada missing out on bronze by four hundredths of a second.

Canada's Cochrane clinches swimming gold

Ryan Cochrane grabbed gold in the men's 400m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games on Monday.

With this victory, Cochrane became Canada's first ever Commonwealth champion at the distance.

The 21-year-old was pushed all the way in his 3:48.48 win by Australia's Ryan Napoleon, who picked up silver and defending champion Dave Carry from Scotland, in bronze.

Cochrane is the first male Canadian swimmer to win at the event since 1938, when Robert Pirie clinched victory in the 440 yards race in Sydney.

"The 400 is a tough race and I am still learning it," Cochrane said. "I just wanted to stay close and then go hard."

Carry's bronze means he has now won four medals at the Commonwealth Games (two golds, one silver and one bronze).

Only three other Scottish athletes have won at least four medals in swimming.

Paes-Sania breeze through

India's Leander Paes and Sania Mirza made a winning start to their mixed-doubles campaign in the tennis event.

Paes and Sania joined forces to overpower Saint Lucia's Stacey Nykita Roheman and Alberton Richelieu 6-1, 6-0.

Earlier in the day, Rohan Bopanna and Rushmi Chakravarthi scored dominant singles victories as India made a confident start to its campaign in the tennis event.

Bopanna scored an effortless 6-1, 6-4 win over Uganda's Rober Buyinza in the first round of the men's singles while Chakravarthi demolished Lesotho's Pinki Agnes Montlha 6-0, 6-1 in the women's singles.

However, there was heartbreak for India as well, as the mixed doubles pair of Bopanna and Nirupama Sanjeev went down fighting 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 to top seeded Australian duo of Paul Hanley and Anastasia Rodionova.

Nirupama, who is coming out of retirement, supported Bopanna well and raised hopes of an upset by clinching the second set but could not maintain the momentum.

An early break of Bopanna's serve in the decisive set handed the Australians a 3-0 lead and although the Indians kept coming hard at their much-fancied opponents, the top seeded pair got points at crucial junctures to ensure they do not become a first day casualty.

Bopanna and Nirupama made a stunning comeback from a set down. They put up a spirited show under pressure, creating a big 5-0 lead by breaking both Hanley and Rodionova early in the second set.

Hanley prevented a whitewash by holding his serve in the sixth game. A smashing overhead volley by Rodionova earned the Australians their first break off Nirupama's serve but Bopanna drew parity by holding the ninth game.

However, the Australians justified the top billing as Hanley closed the match in their favour with an ace.

Nirupama is still in contention as she has teamed up with Poojashree Venkatesh for the women's doubles.

Bopanna dropped 114 places in the rankings, to 587, on Monday, but he was coming into the event after playing a crucial role in the Davis Cup tie against Brazil and was hardly troubled by the African player.

With two breaks of serve, he raced to a comfortable 5-1 lead in the opening set against Buyinza and sealed the lead in just 21 minutes.

Buyinza, ranked 1601, overcame the initial jitters and started to serve well in the second set but unforced errors continued to flow from his racquet.

After missing four break points, Bopanna converted the fifth to get his first break -- in the fifth game â€" and was up 3-2 in the second.

He had a chance to close the set in the ninth game but Buyinza played his best tennis to save that point. However, he could not prevent the Indian from serving out the match in the next game.

But there was hardly any crowd to celebrate Bopanna's victory on centre court.

India's Poojashree Venkateshis is scheduled to play later in the day.

Nwaokolo wins Games' first gold

Augustina Nkem Nwaokolo of Nigeria won the first gold medal of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, with a record mark in the women's weightlifting event at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Sports Complex, in New Delhi, on Monday.

She created a Commonwealth Games record with a total of 175 kgs as she lifted 77 kgs in the Snatch and followed that up with another successful lift of 98 in the Clean and Jerk in the 48-kg women's weighlifting category.

India's Soniya Chanu took the silver with a total of 167 kgs, while Sandhya Rani Devi took the bronze to open India's medal tally on the opening day of the Delhi Games.

Sandhya finished level on points with Malaysia Zaira Zakaria but finished ahead because of a lesser body weight.

The previous record belonged to India's Kunjarani Devi with a total of 167.50 -- 92.5 in the clean and jerk and 75 in the snatch -- at the 2002 Games in Manchester

Easy for Ghosal, Sandhu, Suchde

The India's men's squash team got off to a good start, three players progressing to the second round of the singles, at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

The trio of Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Siddharth Suchde advanced to the round of 32 without much trouble.

However, it was curtains for world No 365-ranked Sandeep Jangra, who went down fighting to 14th seed Australian Ryan Cuskelly, on court No 4.

In the first game of the day, world ranked 71 Siddharth Suchde made short work of Michael Hopkins from Jersey, registering a facile 11-6, 11-5, 11-4 victory over his unseeded opponent in just 18 minutes.

After an easy outing, where he dominated for a major part of the match, Suchde is now readying himself for a sterner test against formidable 7th seed Australian Cameron Pilley in the second round clash in the evening.

"I made good use of my footwork. I made Hopkins run all around the court. I was bit nervous initially as I just want to taste the water before unleashing my assault. We had never played each other," Suchde said after the match.

"Next clash is very tough as Pilley is really a tough nut to crack but I am ready for the challenge," he added.

In the second match, Jangra gave a glimpse of his fighting abilities against the 37th ranked Cuskelly.

Though the Indian lost 7-11, 9-11, 4-11 in 31 minutes, the famed Australian later admitted that he more than once lost his way against the never say die Jangra.

Jangra stretched Cuskelly to the limit but could not survive the late onslaught by the Australian. At one stage, Jangra was leading the second game 9-2 but lost his way and allowed Cuskelly to make a comeback.

The third game was no better as Jangra ran out of energy and caved in under pressure.

The day's next fixture saw India's number one Ghosal taking on unseeded Ugandian Ian Rukunya. Ghosal ran away with the first game (11-1) in just seven minutes, reducing the unseeded opponent to a mere spectator.

The script remained the same in the next two games as the 11th seeded Kolkata player used his speed to great effect to notch up a 11-1, 11-4 11-0 win in 18 minutes.

"I am good at speed and that's what I displayed. I am preparing myself for the tough challenge ahead in the form of England's third seed Peter Barker. If I win my second round match against Scotland's Lyall Paterson, I will be up against Barker and that clash is going to be massive," Ghosal said after his match.

The last fixture of the afternoon, in which an Indian was involved, saw Harinder Pal Sandhu beat Bangladesh's unseeded Shopon Pervez. Sandhu was classy in his approach and execution of shots during his 11-3, 11-1 11-2 win.

Indian men in 4x100m freestyle relay final

Indian swimming made Commonwealth Games history on Monday when the quartet of Virdhawal Khade, Anshul Kothari, Arjun Jayaprakash and Aaron D'Souza finished sixth to make the cut in men's 4x100m freestyle relay.

India also qualified for the semi-finals when Badrinath Melkote (men's 50m backstroke) and Shubha Chittaranjan (women's 50m butterfly) finished 14th and 16th in their respective events.

Led by its biggest hope, Khade, the Indian team clocked 3:28.06s at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Aquatics Complex to make its maiden cut in the event.

Excited over the results, national chief coach S Pradeep Kumar praised his boys.

"This is really fantastic. We have made history by reaching the final for the first time in Commonwealth competition," Pradeep said.

Realistically, he said, it would be tough in the final, scheduled as the day's last event.

"Our timing is not good enough to earn a podium finish. It will be difficult in the final. However, we should aim for a fourth-place finish, which will be good for the relay team."

Timing wise, the Indian quartet finished 12.87s behind preliminary round toppers -- the Australian team of Kyle Morgan Richardson, Cameron Colin Prosser, James Magnussen and Tommaso William D'Orsogna.

The Aussies swam 3:15.18s to top the prelims ahead of Englishmen (Ross Paul Davenport, Simon Andrew Burnett, Grant Turner and Adam Thorp Brown) who clocked 3:17.60.

The South Africans (Darian Roy Townsend, Chad Guy Dertrand Le Clos, Gideon Abraham Louw and Graeme John Moore) finished third with a timing of 3:18.94s.

It will be an interesting final when the South African 4x100m freestyle relay team -- the defending Commonwealth Games Champions and the 2004 Olympic gold medallists -- take the pool in the evening.

The team, incidentally, will be bolstered by Olympian and 50m freestyle world record holder Roland Schoeman in the final.

The youngest Indian to qualify for Beijing Olympics 2008, at 15 years, Khade was the best among the Indian quartet as he swam with 50.71s -- more than two seconds shy of James Magnussen (48.24s) of Australia, the best among the qualifiers.

Melkote clocked 27.52s in lane two to finish 14th in the men's 50m backstroke in which England's world record holder Liam Tancock was the fastest in the heats with 25.47.

The spearhead of the Australian team, Emily Seebohm, who will contest in eight events here, was in total control this morning to top lane 4.

She set the fastest time in 50m butterfly heats (26.52sec), ahead of world champion Marieke Guehrer (26.64sec) as the Aussies took the top two places.

Seebohm also won the 200m individual medley final and 50m butterfly semifinals. In the first heats (women's 200m freestyle) held at the new aquatic centre, Australians Kylie Palmer (1:58.71) and national champion Blair Evans (1:59.25) qualified first and second for the final.

But the pair is expected to face a strong challenge from English stars Rebecca Adlington (1:59.68) and Jo Jackson (1:59.33), who also went through, finishing sixth and fourth respectively.

India's Surbahi Tipre (2:09.82s) and Arti Ghorpade (2:12.20) finished a disappointing 22nd and 24th to end their campaign.

In the men's 400m freestyle heats, Mandar Divase (4:06.02) and Ullalmath Gangan (4:06.29s) finished a lowly 17th and 18th, respectively.

Other Indians to bow out on day one included Beijing Olympian Rehan Poncha and Tarun Tokas (men's 200m butterfly); Priyanka Priyadarshini, Poorva Shetye and Mankiran Kaur (women's 50m breaststroke); and Pooja Alva (women's 200m IM).

Poncha (2:04.20) was 17th while Tokas (2:14.09) finished a lowly 20th in heats.

Priyanka (35.43) was the best among the Indian trio in women's 50m breaststroke, despite a disappointing 21st-place finish.

Priyanka's teammates Poorva (36.41) and Mankiran (36.74) finished 24th and 25th respectively.

Pooja clocked 2:32.11 for a heartbreaking last-place finish in her event.

Indian women paddlers beat Sri Lanka 3-0

The Indian women paddlers also started their campaign on a resounding note, blanking Sri Lanka 3-0 in Group D team competition at the Yamuna Sports complex.

Mouma Das started the host country's domination as she thrashed Ishara Madurangi Darshika 11-4, 11-5, 11-4 before Shamini Kumareshan put India 2-0 in front by outclassing Nuwani Navodya 11-9, 11-9, 11-7.

Reigning National champion Poulomi Ghatak sealed the issue by getting the better of Kavindi Rukmali 11-8, 11-8, 11-7.

The Indian eves, seeded second, have New Zealand and Ghana as their other opponents in the group and are set to take on the Kiwis, who are capable of putting up a better show than the Lankans, later in the day.

A total of 21 medals, including seven gold medals, are up for grabs in table tennis.

Meanwhile, the Australian women paddlers also started on a sound note, beating Wales 3-0.