Commonwealth Games: Seema, Navjeet open athletics medal count'

Gold Coast: Discus throwers Seema Punia and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon opened India’s CWG medal account in athletics on Thursday, clinching a silver and bronze respectively here.

Punia came up with a best effort of 60.41m to win her fourth successive CWG medal while Dhillon clinched her maiden medal with a throw of 57.43m.

The 34-year-old Punia had 59.57m in her second throw and fouled her third and fifth attempts while coming up with a 58.54m in between. She had a final throw of 58.90m. 

The 23-year-old Dhillon was at fourth place after the penultimate round behind Sositina Hakeai of New Zealand but her final round throw gave her a bronze in her maiden CWG appearance.

Punia’s personal best is 64.84m, achieved in 2004.

Former world champion Australian Dani Stevens won the gold with a Games record best throw of 68.26m. The 34-year-old Punia is the most decorated Indian track and field CWG athlete. In the 2006, she had a silver, in 2010 (silver) and 2014 (bronze).

Silver for Sawant 

Tejaswini Sawant claimed silver in the women’s 50m rifle prone event, shooting 102.1, 102.4, 103.3, 102.8, 103.7, 104.6 for a cumulative score of 618.9 over six series to claim her sixth CWG medal.

Singapore’s rifle ace Martina Lindsay Veloso won the gold medal with a Games record 621.0, while Seonaid Mcintosh of Scotland bagged bronze with 618.1.

Hockey team beaten

India’s women’s hockey team failed to capitalise on two goal-scoring chances in the dying minutes to suffer a 0-1 defeat against triple defending champions Australia in the semi-finals.

The hosts’goal was scored by Grace Stewart in the third quarter.

India will now face England for a bronze medal on Saturday.

Sindhu, Saina, Srikanth win 

Star shuttlers P.V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and new world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth cruised into the quarter-finals of their respective singles events.

It was an all-win day for the Indian shuttlers as they stormed into the last-eight stage.

Sindhu defeated Australia’s Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen 21-15, 21-9. Nehwal’s opponent Jessica Li of Isle of Man retired hurt while trailing 0-2 in the second game after the Indian had won the first 21-4.

Ruthvika Gadde advanced with a 21-10, 21-23, 21-10 win over Jia Min Yeo of Singapore.

In men’s singles, Srikanth beat Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka 21-10, 21-10. H.S. Prannoy beat Australia’s Anthony Joe 21-18, 21-11.

In table tennis, Manika Batra cruised to the semi-finals of the women’s singles as Mouma Das’ campaign came to an end.

Manika notched up a win against Singapore’s Yihan Zhou 11-5, 11-6, 11-2, 6-11 while Mouma was ousted by Yu Mengyu of Singapore 13-15, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7, 5-11.

In men’s singles draw, Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and G. Sathiyan sealed last eight berths.

In squash, the duo of Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal advanced to the semi-finals of the mixed double’s event even as compatriots Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu crashed out.

The fifth seeded pair beat third seeds Tesni Evans and Peter Creed of Wales 11-8, 11-10.