Glasgow, Aug 2 (IANS) Woman discus thrower Seema Punia grabbed a silver, boxer Pinki Jangra brought home a bronze, while pugilists and paddlers assured the nation of at least three more silver medals on day eight of competition at the Commonwealth Games here Friday.
India remained fifth on the leaderboard with 49 medals comprising 13 gold, 21 silver and 15 bronze pieces. England, Australia, Canada and hosts Scotland are in the first four places. The games would draw to a close Sunday.
Seema, who had had won the silver in the 2006 Melbourne Games, repeated the feat by hurling the disc to a distance of 61.61 metres. She had bagged the bronze in the 2010 Games where India clinched all the three medals from the event. However, defending champion Krishna Poonia finished a disappointing fifth.
It was the second medal for India from track and field, a day after men’s discus thrower Vikas Gowda won the historic gold at the Hampden Park Stadium.
Pinki won India’s first boxing medal from the current Games, though she lost her women’s 48-51 kg semi-final bout at the SECC Hall. The Haryana pugilist gave a tough fight to Michaela Walsh but the Northern Ireland woman’s height and better reach helped her win all the four rounds of two minutes each.
Former world champion L. Sarita Devi and her state-mate L. Devendro Singh came out with stupendous performances in their respective bouts to enter the boxing finals.
Mozambique’s Maria Machongua was no match for Sarita who won all the four rounds of two minutes each in the women’s 57-60 kg category semi-final.
In table tennis, veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal led from the front. Sharath partnered Anthony Amalraj to a facile 11-7, 12-10, 11-3 win over Singapore’s Zi Yang and Jian Khan in the semi-finals to enter the men’s doubles final.
Later, the 32-year-old Sharath recorded an easy 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 win over Nigeria’s Segun Toriola in the Round of 16 followed by a 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6 quarter-final win over England’s Paul Drinkhall to enter the men’s singles semis.
However, it was the end of the road for other Indian paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai and the women’s doubles pairs Shamini Kumaresan and Madhurika Patkar and Ankita Das and Paulomi Ghatak.
Squash pairs Saurav Ghosal-Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Sandhu-Joshana Chinappa also bowed out after losing their respective mixed doubles quarter-finals at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.
India narrowly missed on a medal in lawn bowls losing out to Australia 14-15 in the men’s fours bronze medal play-off match.
However, leading Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and P.V. Sindhu entered the semi-finals.
In the absence of top seed Saina Nehwal, No.2 seed Sindhu routed New Zealand’s Anna Rankin in straight games in the women’s singles quarter-finals to enter the last four in her first appearance at the games.
Earlier, men’s singles second seed Kashyap also had an easy 21-13, 21-14 victory in 38 minutes to proceed to the semis.
India’s artistic gymnast Ashish Kumar had a disappointing finish at the Commonwealth Games as he ended eighth and last in the men’s vault.
The Indian women’s hockey team defeated hosts Scotland 2-1 in the 5-6 position classification match to end fifth at the Commonwealth Games here Friday.
Indian athlete Sahana Nagaraj came out with a disappointing performance to finish eighth in the women’s high jump.