News from Darjeeling, Dooars & Sikkim

Fireworks on display at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi - giving India the psychological bang it needs to now start winning against the world in all sectors ?!! (CWG org)

CW GAMES WATCH: India grabs 5 golds to climb to 2nd spot in medals tally at Commonwealth Games – slowly growing from strength to strength, can do greater if professionally promoted well ?!!

From EtIndian News Network

New Delhi, October 5, 2010: India grabbed five gold medals — with two pairs of shooters hitting the bull’s eye and wrestlers snatching all three titles at stake — to climb to the second spot in the medals tally behind Australia at the end of the second day of competitions in the XIX Commonwealth Games here today.

The hosts started the day on a bright note as Beijing Olympics gold medalist Abhinav Bindra and world record holder Gagan Narang won the first gold of the Games for them in the men’s 10 m Air Rifle Pairs at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.

They shot a total of 1,193 out of a maximum 1,200 points to snatch victory. Bindra scored 595 while Narang scored 598.

Shortly afterwards, Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayeed set a Games record of 1,156 points to win gold in the women’s 25 m Pistol Pairs.

The action then shifted to the wrestling arena at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, where in the men’s Greco-Roman style, Ravinder Singh, Sanjay and Anil Kumar snatched gold in their respective categories.

Ravinder beat England’s Christopher Terence Bosson 7-2 in the 60 kg category after which Sanjay prevailed over Brian Richard Addinall 2-0 in the 74 kg category. Anil Kumar brought more cheers for the home team by outperforming Hassene Fkiri of Australia 6-0 in the final of the 96 kg category.

India’s medals haul today also included two silvers won by Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh in the men’s 50 m pistol pairs event and Tejaswini Sawant and Lajjakumari Gauswami in the 50 m rifle 3 position.

India’s tally now stands at 5 golds, 4 silvers and 2 bronzes. India’s women lifters Sonia Chanu and Sandhya Rani Devi gave India their first two medals – a silver and a bronze in the 48 kg class yesterday, followed by a silver and bronze by their male counterparts Sukhen Dey and V Srinivasa Rao in the 56 kg class.

In shooting, Sarnotbat achieved an average of 9.733 points while Sayeed averaged 9.533 in the session. For India, it was the second successive gold in this event, having won in the Melbourne Games in 2006, too.

Australia’s Linda Ryan and Lalita Yauhleuskaya bagged silver with 1,146 points while Gorgs Geikie and Julia Lydall of England took the bronze with 1,122 points.

Onkar Singh and Deepak Sharma won a silver for India in the 50 m Air Pistol Pair event.

In the men’s 10 m Air Rifle Pairs event, James Huckle and Kenny Parr of England took the silver with 1,174 points while Hel Abdullah Baki and Asif Hossain Khan of Bangladesh got the bronze with 1,173 points.

With today’s victory, Bindra completed a treble in the event, having won golds earlier at the Manchester Commonealth Games in 2002 and at Melbourne in 2006. It was his fourth gold medal in shooting in the Games.

For Narang, it was his fifth gold medal in the Commonwealth Games, having won gold in the last three editions.

Bindra and Narang today broke their own Games record of 1,189 set in Melbourne four years ago.

Narang notched a sequence of 99, 100, 100, 99, 100, 100 while Bindra ended up with a series of 100, 98, 99, 100, 99, 99

In tennis, top seed Somdev Devvarman of India won 6-4, 6-2 in his opening match against Devin Mullings of the Bahamas but he looked ill at ease. “I was a little nervous. I did well to come back,” he told reporters later.

“Playing in India is a special feeling. It doesn’t matter what seed you are. When you’re playing something as big as this, it’s a lot more special. You win for your country, then yourself,” he added.

In the men’s doubles, top seeded Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi of India cruised into the last eight with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Thangarajah Dineshkanthan and Amresh Jayawickreme in the first round.

In the women’s doubles, Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree reached the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Aminath Irufa Mahir and Aminath Maleela Solih of the Maldives.

In archery, top seed Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar of India reached the last eight in the men’s recurve as did Deepika Kumari and Dola Banerjee in the women’s event. (NNN).

5-gold haul pulls India to 2nd spot at CWG – and growing from strength to strength, its the competing spirit and the active participation that is the real winner ?!!

From Times of India

NEW DELHI, Oct 5, 2010, 09.40pm IST (PTI): Two pairs of shooters were bang on target while the grapplers made a clean sweep of all three titles at stake as India grabbed five gold medals to climb to the second spot in the medals table below Australia in the Commonwealth Games today.

The Indian men’s 10m air rifle pair of Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and world record holder Gagan Narang started the gold rush for the country in the morning which was sustained by women shooters Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayeed who picked up the pairs 25m pistol event for women in style.

Two more silver medals came India’s way from the Dr Karni Singh shooting range before greco-roman style grapplers Ravinder Singh (60 kg), Sanjay (74 kg) and Anil Kumar (96kg) made a clean sweep of all three gold medals on offer from the wrestling mat to round off a splendid day for the hosts.

The two silver medals were earned by Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh, in the men’s 50m pistol pairs event, and the woman’s duo of world champion Tejaswini Sawant and Lajjakumari Gauswami, who stood second in the pairs 50m rifle 3 position.

The five gold and two silver medals boosted the hosts’ overall medal tally to 5-4-2 on the second day of competitions after the weightlifers gave the country two silver and as many bronze medals yesterday.

The three wrestling gold medals pitchforked India to the second place behind Australia after England overtook the home country briefly through their first two golds from the pool won by Liam John Tancock (men’s 50m backstroke) and Francesca Jean Halsall (women’s 50m butterlfly).

The day commenced in scintillating fashion for India when Bindra and Narang ended the first day’s gold medal drought with a Games record of 1193, overtaking their own mark of 1189 set four years ago in Melbourne, to clinch the men’s 10m air rifle pairs event.

Their feat was followed by a superb display of calm nerves and dead centre shooting by the women’s duo of Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed who added the second gold in the women’s 25m pistol pairs event with a championship record of 1156 to boot.

Sharma and Omkar ended up second in the men’s 50m pairs event (1187) behind Lim Swee Hon and Gai Bin of Singapore.

Later Tejaswani and Lajjakumari finished second in the women’s 50m air rifle 3 position, by equalling the 2006 Games mark of 1143 points, Singapore’s Aquilah Sudhir and Jasmine Xiang Wei who broke the previous record by six points.

“Many thought I am a dictator, since I had imposed a gag order on the shooters prior to the Games. But whatever I was doing, I was doing for the country. And we have got the reward for that,” said a beaming national coach Sunny Thomas after his team members won a medal in each of the four events they took part in during the day.

CWG 2010 Medal Tally: India won two more medals, Australia in top – from hosting the Olympic experience, which India has yet to get ?!!

From Haryana News
By Vikrant

October 4, 2010:India won two more medals in Commonwealth Games 2010. India won 1 silver and 1 bronze medal in weightlifting, 56kg event.

Ibrahim Amirul, from Malaysia won the gold medal in this event.
India’s Dey Sukhen won the silver medal in this event, while VS Rao, from India, won the bronze medal in this event.

Now, with the addition of these two medals, India got total four medals.
Before this, one silver and bronze medal was won by India in weightlifting, 48 kg, women’s event.

Soniya Charu won silver medal in 48 kgweightlifting event. And Sandhya Devi, won the bronze medal in the same event.

Australia is still on top, with six medals, Australia won four gold medals and two silver medals.

Canada won total four medals, including one gold and three bronze.

England won total four medals, including three silver and one bronze medal.
India won two medals each, bronze and silver, total four medals.

South Africa won total two medals, one gold and one broze medal. Malaysia and Nigeria won one gold medal each.

Wales won one silver medal, while Scotland won one bronze medal in this opening mega event of CWG 2010.

Commonwealth Games 2010: Medal Count – Day 3 Tuesday – step by step, row by row, will India continue to grow ?!!

From Only Kent

Tuesday, 5 October: The Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi, is now underway and on the third day of the Games (Tuesday) the medals won are starting to mount up near the close of the day. After the excitement of the spectacular opening ceremony and some of the first medals won yesterday, the Games has really settled down into its stride and we are seeing some great sporting action.

So far today we’ve seen cyclist Anna Meares of Australia take a gold medal in the Women’s 500m Time Trial at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex and also gaining a new Commonwealth Games record. Meanwhile for host nation India, Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayyed gained gold for the Pairs 25m Pistol event for women, according to the official Commonwealth Games website.

Currently at the top of the medals count table is Australia with 4 golds, 5 silvers and 2 bronze while host country India is in second position with 2 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronze. England is presently in third in the medal tally with 1 gold, 4 silvers and 2 bronze medals while Canada is in fourth place with 1 gold and 3 bronze medals. To see the complete full medal tally go to the medal webpage here.

Medal feast coming up!

From CWG.org

6 October 2010: Good news for sports fans – 28 Gold medals up for grabs on Wednesday. Don’t miss the exciting action at Delhi 2010!

AQUATICS
Men’s 200m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke, 4 x 200m freestyle relay and Para-sport 50m freestyle. Women’s 100m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 4 x 200m freestyle relay. The finals start at 4:00 pm

ATHLETICS
Women’s Para-sport shot put, 5:35 pm; Women’s Javelin throw, 6:00 pm; and Men’s 5000m, 7:55 pm

CYCLING
Women’s 25km points race, 12:35 pm; Women’s team sprint, 1:25 pm; Men’s Kierin, 2:05 pm; Men’s 40km points race, 2:20 pm

GYMNASTICS
Men’s individual all-round, 1:30 p.m. and Women’s individual all-round, 5:00 pm

SHOOTING
Men’s double trap, 10:00 am; Men’s 10m air rifle, 12:00 noon; Women’s 25m pistol, 1:45 pm and Men’s 50m pistol, 3:30pm

WEIGHTLIFTING
Women’s 58kg class, 2:00 pm and Men’s 69kg class, 6:30 pm

WRESTLING
Men’s Greco-Roman 55kg, 66kg, 84kg and 120kg, 4:30 pm

– PTI

What to look out for on Wednesday at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi – best of the Commonwealth, drubbing their past masters ?!!

From Mail Online
By Sports Mail Reporter

5th October 2010, 10:47 PM: The Commonwealth Games in Delhi are now in full swing, and Sportsmail will keep you up to date with all the latest news from the Indian capital.

Here’s what to look out for on Wednesday and the third full day of competition at these Games.

An evening dedicated to art! – after a tough day at the competitions, the joy of beauty, Indian style ?!!

From The Times of India
By Diksha Kamra,

Oct 6, 2010, 12.00am IST, TNN: As Delhi celebrates the Commonwealth Games, art too does its bit, in a very sporty way, of course! Over 100 artists from all over India and 12 art galleries of Delhi came together for this art exhibition called ‘Art Celebrates! 2010’ at the Lalit Kala Akademi, where Payal Kapoor of Arushi Arts also displayed the works of her gallery.

Right after Sheila Dikshit inaugurated this art extravaganza, many guests left, they were all in a hurry it seemed. Amongst the first ones to leave were Sanjay Bhattacharya, Amitabh Kant and Shashi Gandhi. “Rohit is out of town, you see. I have seen all the paintings, they are fabulous… And the snacks are good too,” said Shashi before leaving.

ART-ICULATing: Sunaina Anand, who was working very closely with this initiative, said, “We’ve waited for this day for so long. Finally, it is here, and all is going well.” Roopika, added, “I am happy to see that the artists have been successful in incorporating the theme of Delhi and sports.” Parul and Amit Vadehra were feeling a little camera shy, very unusual of them. So we moved on and saw Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao. Arre, we mean we saw their picture by artist Atul Dodia. “Their painting has been made out of their picture in which they are watching a football match,” artist Saptarshi Naskar told us.

Clearly, this painting was the most talked about. (and Darjeeling’s Sunil Chettri & Sikkim’s Bhaichung Bhutia not yet forgotten ?!!)