Harpal Singh Bedi
Boxers assured India six medals, in hockey drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh scored a hat-trick to help his team down Wales 4-1 and book a place in the semifinal while shuttlers PV Sindhu, K Srikanth and Akarshi Kashyap moved into the next round on the 7th day of the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham on Thursday
In men’s hockey India topped the pool b with three wins and a draw and with better goal average and avoided favourites Australia in the semi-finals, as England beat Canada 11-2 to finish second
Also, three more pugilists made it through to the semi-finals, thereby making it a total of six boxers who are now assured of medals.
India are still in seventh place with five gold, six silver and seven bronze medals.
After being held goalless in the first quarter, Harman struck two penalty corners home in the second to put India ahead and then, converted a stroke in the third to complete his hat-trick. Gurjant got the fourth in the final quarter after Gareth Furlong had pulled one back for Wales through a smartly taken penalty corner. India thus finished the pool engagements with three wins and a draw.
Amit Panghal in the men’s 48kg-51kg (Flyweight) class, began country’s fine run in Boxing on the day with a unanimous 5-0 decision on points over Scotsman Lennon Mulligan. Then Jasmine in the women’s 57kg-60kg (Lightweight) category, also reached the semis with a 4-1 result against Troy Garton of New Zealand. Sagar in 92kg+ (Super Heavyweight) class then brought about the third win on the day beating Keddy Evans Agnes of Seychelles 5-0 on points to reach his semis.
With this India now have six pugilists in the semis in Boxing.
In Badminton, P.V. Sindhu beat Maldives’ Fathimath Abdul Razzak 21-4, 21-11 in a Round of 32 women’s singles match. Kidambi Srikanth won his Round of 32 match 21-9, 21-9 against Uganda’s Daniel Wanagaliya. and late in the day Akarshi Kashyap also made it to the next round after Pakistan’s Mazhoor Shahzad retired hurt . At that stage Akarshi was leading 21-19,8-1
However, in the mixed doubles Ashwini Ponappa and B. Sumeeth Reddy, lost to England’s Callum Hemming and Jessica Pugh, 21-18, 21-16 in their Round of 32 match.
India had mixed fortunes in the Squash doubles matches as well with wins coming through Sunayna Kuruvilla/Anahat Singh in the women’s doubles when they bt Yeheni Kuruppu/Sinaly Chanithma of Sri Lanka 11-9, 11-4 in a Round of 32 encounter while Velavan Senthilkumar, paired up with Abhay Singh in the men’s doubles, to get the better of Luca Reich/Joe Chapman of the British Virgin Islands 11-3, 11-1 to move to round of 16.
In the mixed doubles while No.1 seed Dipika Pallikal/Saurav Ghosal beat Emily Whitlock/Peter Creed of Wales 11-8, 11-4 in their first game, the experienced Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu/Joshana Chinappa went down to Australia’s Donna Lobban/Cameron Pilley in two straight games, 8-11 and 9-11.
In Table Tennis, Sathyan Gnansekaran and Manika Batra, beat hapless Seychelles pairing of Mick Crea/Laura Sinon, to win 11-1, 11-3, 11-1. second mixed doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula breezed past the Northern Ireland pairing of Owen Cathcart and Sophie Earley 11 – 7, 11 – 8, 11 – 9.
There was disappointment from the paddler’s camp however with Sanil Shetty/Reeth Tennison going down to Malaysia’s Wong Qi Shen/Tee Ai Xin in a round of 64 -match. The Indians lost the first two games 6-11, 10-12 but then came back brilliantly to win the third and fourth games 13-11, 11-8 and level the tie. The Malaysian pair however clinched the final game 11-8 to put paid to India’s hopes.
In other results
Hima Das won her women’s 200m heat on the Athletics track with a timing of 23.42s to qualify for the semis.
Manpreet Kaur competing in the women’s Lightweight Para Powerlifting competition finished fourth with 89.6 points while Sakina Khatun finished fifth with 87.5 points.
Mridul Borgohain playing his Section D game in the Men’s Singles Sectional, went down to Ross Davis 13-21, suffering his first loss after two good wins yesterday