05 October 2010: Hosts India opened their medal account in Commonwealth Games weightlifting competition when Soniya Chanu bagged a silver medal and Sandhya Rani Devi clinched a bronze in the women’s 48 kg class at the Jawaharlal Nehru sports complex on Monday. Chanu cleared 167 kg to stand second in the event behind Nigerian woman Augustina Nwaokolo who hoised 175 kg to win the contest. She also created a new Games record.
Sandya Rani took the bronze with a total clearance of 165 kg. Chanu and Nwaokolo were tied with the same clearance of 94 kg in the snatch competition but the latter, who weighed marginally less than the Indian woman, settled the issue in the clean and jerk category by clearing 8 kgs more. Indian men weightlifters won two more medals, in 56 kg Srinivas Rao got the bronze, Sukhen Dey got the silver. Amirul Ibrahim of Malaysia got the gold.
Dey gave a stiff competition to Games record holder Hamizan Amirul Ibrahim of Malaysia before settling for a silver at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium five kgs short of the winner’s effort. Ibrahim cleared 257kg and Rao lifted 248kg for the bronze medal. Ibrahim, in the process, claimed the first gold medal for his country while also setting a new Games record of 116kg in the snatch, surpassing his personal best of 115. He lifted 141 in clean and jerk.
India have drawn with Scotland 1-1 in women’s hockey. The hosts will be disappointed but they at least managed to salvage a draw. South Africa, also in the same group, earlier in the day beat Trinidad and Tobago 12-0.
In tennis, Rohan Bopanna kicked off the day with an emphatic 6-1, 6-4 victory over Uganda’s Robert Buyinza to sail into the last 16 of the men’s singles and Rushmi Charkravathi soon made it two in a row for India, dropping only one game in beating Pinki Agnes Montlha of Lesotho 6-0, 6-1 as tennis made its debut at the Games. Poojashree Venkatesha hardly broke a sweat during a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Lesotho’s Nthabiseng Eunicia Nqosa.
The only blemish in India’s campaign was the loss of Bopanna and Nirupama Sanjeev in the mixed doubles first round to top seeds Paul Hanley and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, though not before giving them a fright. It was a busy day for Bopanna, who was back in the court guiding an initially nervy Nirupama. After being outclassed in the first set, the Indian pair shifted gear in the second with Bopanna taking charge at the net. They, however, failed to carry the momentum in the decider, allowing the Australians to scrape through after a nearly two-hour-struggle.
In the other tennis mixed doubles Leander Paes and Sania Mirza rounded off a successful opening day for India with a facile 6-1, 6-0 victory over Saint Lucia’s Stacey Nykita Roheman and Alberton Richelieu to enter the mixed doubles quarterfinals in the Commowealth Games tennis here on Monday. Second seeds Sania and Paes, who won gold in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, were excited to team up after four years.
C W Games, Day 1: India end first day with four medals