INDIA: It is another hat-trick of gold medals in wrestling for India as Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Vinesh Phogat and Naveen won the yellow metal in their respective categories.
Their efforts come a day after the trio of Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Deepak Punia won gold medals on Friday. The total of golds from wrestling now stands at 6, the most of any single discipline at the CWG 2022 for India.
Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat won her third gold at Commonwealth Games 2022. The 27-year-old won in freestyle 53kg category. She won each of her three matches in the Nordic System.
Just before that, wrestler Ravi Dahiya bagged India’s Tenth Gold Medal in the men’s freestyle 57kg event here on Saturday. He defeated Nigeria’s Ebikewenimo Welson in Commonwealth Games 2022. The 24-year-old had already won a silver in Tokyo Olympics last year.
Meanwhile Pooja Gehlot became the first Indian wrestler to win a medal today, she won the women’s 50kg bronze medal. So far, Indian athletes have shone quite brightly at Birmingham. Nikhat Zareen (Women’s Flyweight) became the third Indian boxer after Amit Panghal (Men’s Flyweight) and Nitu Ganghas (Women’s Flyweight) to qualify for the finals of their categories on Saturday.
On the other hand, India defeated South Africa 3-2 on Saturday to reach the men’s hockey final of the Commonwealth Games. After a scoreless first quarter, India scored twice in the second quarter. Abhishek opened the scoring before Mandeep Singh made it 2-0 after a fine solo goal. Ryan Julius got South Africa back into the game after scoring with a rebound from the penalty spot.
India restored their two-goal lead in the fourth quarter before South Africa pulled one back to spoil themselves inside the Indian dugout. India remain unbeaten in the tournament so far with three wins and a draw. South Africa, on the other hand, recorded two wins and a draw and a loss.
Jaismine Lamboriya lost in the women’s lightweight semifinals receiving a bronze. Earlier during the day athletics gave India plenty to cheer about as Priyanka Goswami won a silver medal in the 10,000m walk final and Avinash Sable won silver in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.
Later, the Indian women’s cricket team defeated England by four runs to qualify to the finals. After the wrestlers grabbed the limelight with three gold medals on Day 8, the Indian contingent can expect more medals on Day 9.
In badminton, PV Sindhu entered the singles semi-finals. The evening will feature Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen. Star table tennis players like Achanta Sharath Kamal put up great performances. In squash, Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal lost the semi-finals of the mixed doubles.
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