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Rediff.com  » Sports » Poonia leads sweep of women's discus throw

Poonia leads sweep of women's discus throw

Last updated on: October 11, 2010 22:17 IST
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Krishna Poonia led an unprecedented sweep of all the women's discus throw medals at the Commonwealth Games on Monday.

The Railways athlete, who won bronze at the Doha Asian Games, led a historic Indian 1-2-3 by hurling the disc to 61.51m. She became the country's first woman in 52 years to win the gold on a day the Games were rocked by its first doping scandal when woman's 100m champion gold medallist Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria returned a positive test for a banned stimulant.

Poonia is the second Indian athlete after Milkha Singh (1958, Cardiff) to garner a gold in track and field events. Her triumph enabled the country to equal its previous-best gold medal haul in the Games history.

India had won 30 gold at Manchester eight years ago.

Harwant Kaur (60.66m) and National record holder Seema Antil (58.46m) bagged silver and bronze respectively.

The trio's effort helped lift the host country's tally in athletics to a record seven medals.

Shuttlers Kashyap, Chetan advance to semis

Sixth seed P Kashyap stunned higher-ranked Malaysian Muhammad Hafiz Hasim to advance to the semi-finals of the individual badminton event of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Monday.

Sixth seed Kashyap, playing his first Commonwealth Games, digged deep into his armoury to script a brilliant 19-21, 21-19, 21-16 victory over fourth seed Hasim.

Kashyap will next face second seed Rajiv Ouseph, whom he had beaten in the team event semi-finals a few days ago.

That semi-final will be played on Tuesday.

Chetan also breezed past Carl Baxter 21-17, 21-9 in another quarter-final match to set up a clash with World No 1 Lee Chong Wei, who beat eighth seed Chen Yza of Singapore at the Siri Fort sport complex in New Delhi.

However, fifth seed Aditi Mutatkar was not as lucky as the Indian lost 8-21, 12-21 to second seed Mew Choo Wong in another match.

Jwala Gutta and V Diju also bit the dust against Malaysian pair Koo Kien Keat and Chin Ei Hui 13-21, 19-21 in another quarter-final tie.

Earlier, hot favourite Saina Nehwal cruised into the quarter-finals after spanking Nothern Ireland's Caroline Black 21-0, 21-2, while Aditi beat Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 21-11, 21-17 in 24 minutes.

It was all over for Sanave Thomas and Aparna Balan, who lost 15-21, 18-21 to Chris Adcock and Gabby White in another 28-minute match.

Indian eves beat Canada 3-0, finish fifth in hockey

Last edition's silver medalist India dished out a commanding performance and defeated Canada 3-0 in a classification match to finish in the women's hockey event.

Ritu Rani (18th minute) scored in the opening half while Thokchom Chanchan Devi (66th) and Saba Anjum (70th) sounded the board after the breather to ensure a comfortable win for the home team and draw the curtains to an otherwise disappointing campaign.

Pugilists Manoj, Suronjoy Samota make finals; Vijender loses

LST Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) made it three Indians in the finals for the first time in the history of the Games as he defeated F A Junior of Tonga 6-2.

Earlier, Boxer Manoj Kumar entered the final of the light welterweight (64 kg) category defeating Valentino Knowles of Bahamas 3-1 in the semi-finals and Suranjoy Singh also made it to the finals of the flyweight (52 kg) category after defeating haroon Iqbal of Pakistan.

Vijender Singh joined the list of losers in the boxing semi-finals, after being beaten in 75 kg category by England's Anthony Ogogo.

Earlier, India's medal hopefuls in boxing, Commonwealth Championships gold medallist Amandeep Singh (49kg), Asian silver-medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) and nine-time national champion Dilbag Singh (69kg) were beaten in the semi-finals and will have to settle for bronze medals.

Amandeep lost 0-5 to Olympic bronze medallist and European champion Paddy Barnes of Northern Ireland, Jai went
down 5-10 to European Championships silver winner Thomas Stalker of England and Dilbag was beaten 4-5 in a thrilling contest by Northern Ireland's Patrick Gallagher.

Tejaswini, Kumari bag bronze in 50m rifle prone

Women shooters Tejaswini Sawant and Meena Kumari had to settle for a bronze after missing the gold medal by a whisker in the women's 50 metres rifle prone event.

Scotland's Jen McIntosh (591) and Kay Copland (578) clinched the gold while England's Michelle Smith (590) and Sharon Lee (579) grabbed the silver.

Both the teams were tied on 1,169 points, but Scotland?bagged the top prize on the basis of 60 perfect tens.

Tejaswini, India's first woman World champion, shot 583 and while Meena 585, as the hosts finished with 1,168 points.

Indian rugby team out of medal contention

The capacity crowd at the Delhi University ground vociferously cheered for the home team but

that did not prove sufficient as Indian ruggers lost all three encounters of the day against their higher ranked opponents to bow out of medal contention in the Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens event.

The Men in Blue failed to put up a decent fight against reigning World Cup Sevens champion Wales, world ranked sixth South Africa and next season's World Series qualifier Tongo in the Group-B engagements.

India will now play against Canada on Tuesday in the 'Bowl' Division for the 9th-16 position finish after being relegated to the bottom of the group.

In the opening game, India were no match to the 2009 World Cup champions Wales and lost 7-56. Amit Lochab scored India's only try four minutes into the first half while Wales crossed four times to lead 28-7 at the break.

Wales' Tom Prydie and Lee Williams each bagged a brace of tries and Gareth Davies scored a try and kicked six conversions in the first round Pool-B clash.

Indian divers Hari Prasad, Hrutika in finals

Indian divers Hari Prasad Thimmarayappa and Hrutika Parvatayya Shriram qualified for the finals of their respective events at the SP Mukherjee Swimming Stadium.

Hari Prasad finished 12th with 260.70 points in the men's 3m Springboard preliminary round but still made it to the final.

Hrutika also finished 12th with 176.75 points in the women's 10m platform event but also made it to the final.

However, Manesh Kumar Mohan and Deepti Panwar missed the bus for the finals of 3m Springboard Men and 10m platform Women respectively.

Hari Prasad finished 224.45 points behind number one Alexandre Despatie of Canada. Hrutika was 176.35 points behind Pandelela Pamg, who finshed first in the qualifying round.

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