India shine on day two; win three golds, one silver

Pune Oct 13 ( UNI) Indian athletes made the best of the home conditions and covered themselves in gold as the hosts annexed three of the five gold medals on offer along with a silver medal on the second day of the third edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games held here today.

It was the girl from Amritsar Diksha Gaikwad, however, who stole the limelight on the second day by bagging the gold medal in the women's 48 kg weightlifting category with a new meet record. Diksha totalled a tally of 140.00 kgs in snatch and jerk to grab the gold.

The strongly built Diksha started off in style, lifting 64 kgs in snatch and followed it up by lifting 76.00 kgs in jerk to have a total of 140 kgs to post a new meet record. Jessica Ruel of Canada claimed the silver having totalled 138.0 kgs, while Utako Auku of Nauru took the bronze with a total of 128 kgs.

All the three lifters bettered the earlier meet record enroute to the gold, silver and bronze medals.

However, it was the shooters who were once the stars with Ankush Bharadwaj capturing the first gold of the games by winning the 50 meters Pistol event for men aggregating a tally of 509 points.

It was indeed an irony that only two competitors figured in the event with Middleton Murray of Falkland Island despite scoring 26 points being declared as did not finish.

Later talking to mediapersons, the 18-year-old Haryana lad said, ''He was far from satisfied with his performance today. I should have done much better despite having no pressure at all.'' Ankush had mustered a tally of 536 points in the Guwahati national shooting championship. The lad, however, did not hide his unsatisfactory performance but said that it gives him the pleasure of winning the first gold for India to open the medals tally.

Ankush trains under coach Subash Chandra who said, ''He could have brought a much better tally as there was no competition at all.'' The third gold medal for the hosts came through 17-year-old shooter Rahi Sarnobat, a first year student of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) of Vivekanand College in Kolhapur. She won the 25 meter pistol event with a total tally of 748.1 points to snatch the first gold of her career. Though it was a touch and go for her, she got the better off Alia Sazana of Malaysia who had to rest content with silver mustering a tally of 748 .9 points after the two were levelled at 550 points in the opening round. Haylay Chapman of Australia bagged the bronze having 729.3 points to her credit.

The other golds of the day went to Aquilah Sudhir of Singapore in the women's 10 meters Air Rifle event posting a tally of 501.0 points to claim the gold, and to lifter Tulo Manueli of Fiji in the 56kg category for men with a total lift 219 kgs. Shiv Shankar Singh of the host nation claimed the silver with a total lift of 216 kgs. The bronze was bagged by Bin Ammeran of Malaysia with a total lift of 215 kgs.

Tulo took the lead with a highest lift of 97 kgs in the snatch, while Bin Ammeran was placed second with a lift of 95 kgs. Shiv Shankar Singh with a lift of 93 was placed third.

However, in the clean and jerk, Shiv Shankar Singh with a lift of 123 kgs had a total lift of 216 kgs, Tulo though had a lesser lift in the clean and jerk of 122 kgs he won the gold with a total lift of 219 kgs. Bin Ammeran who was placed second after the snatch round could only lift 120 kgs in clean and jerk to total 215 and lose the silver medal by 1 kg.

In a keen competition in the women's 10 meters Air Rifle event, the silver was bagged by Monica Fyfe of Canada recording 496.1 points to her credit and Nur Ayuni of Malaysia bagged the bronze with a tally of 492.2 points.

The hosts also had a good day in the preliminary matches of the table tennis, tennis, badminton and boxing events with all its players advancing to the next round.

In table tennis women's favourite for the gold medal Olympian Neha Aggarwal advanced easily into the second round along with her compatriot Soumi Mondal, while in men's section Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnansekaran had easy outings moving into the third round.

UNI IS/GS/RAR AB KN2020