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At the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Monday, India's men followed up on the success of the women's team to claim gold and make it a memorable double as far as the Table Tennis team events were concerned.
After the women's team won gold yesterday for the very first time, the gents also secured gold today, comfortably beating Nigeria 3-0 in the final. India's star player, Sharath Kamal, lost the first set in the opening rubber of the tie, but rebounded to win in four and that set India on the path to victory as Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and the doubles team finished the job.
While their final victory might have been comfortable, their semifinal win was anything but. They overcame Singapore 3-2 in a thrilling tie with each team winning alternatively. It came down to the final singles match which Sharath won easily, thereby putting India in the final. India's lead man was perfect on the day, winning all three of his singles matches (two in the semis, one in the final) to lead the way.
Jitu shoots down the gold as Ghosh narrowly misses out
The prolific Jitu Rai made it back-to-back Commonwealth Games gold medals in the Men's 10m Air Rifle event. The defending champion from Glasgow 2014 was only 4th in the qualifying earlier, but in the final, he came into his own and finished a good 2 points clear of the silver medalist. Rai shot a new Games Record total of 235.1 to top the field.
22-year-old Om Mitharval claimed the bronze. Mitharval actually registered the highest score in qualifying to top the field, but in the finals, he shot a few 8s that saw him lose ground on the leaders.
It could have been a clean sweep with gold in the Women's 10m Air Rifle as well, but 17-year-old Mehuli Ghosh just missed out after a shoot-off for the gold. Ghosh and Martina Veloso of Singapore finished dead even at 247.2 at the end of the competition. It came down to a shoot-off where Ghosh shot a 9.9 while Veloso shot a 10.3 to edge out the Indian.
Apurvi Chandela, winner in Glasgow four years ago, picked up the bronze to ensure that India picked up four out of six medals in the 10m Air Rifle events.
Smit Singh made the final of the Men's Skeet, but could only finish 6th.
Shuttlers bring home first gold
The Indian team had been blowing away every opponent in the competition until the final, but the Malaysians posed sterner competition in the final of the Mixed Team event. However, India lived up to their billing as the top seeds and claimed their very first Commonwealth Games gold in this category.
Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwik Rankireddy got India off to a winning start in the mixed doubles and then Kidambi Srikanth extended their advantage with a straight-sets win over the legendary Lee Chong Wei. That put India in the driver's seat, but Goh Shem and Tan Wee Kiong won the men's doubles, beating Satwik and Chirag Shetty.
It came down to the fourth rubber, where Saina Nehwal beat Soniia Cheah after being stretched to three sets. It was a crucial match because had Cheah won, Malaysia would have potentially had the advantage in the final mixed doubles rubber. And it wasn't an easy outing. She trailed in all three sets, but ended up winning the first and third sets to give India the win.
Weightlifting
Monday was finally the day when the lifters did not capture a gold in these Games thus far.
There was a silver lining though as Pardeep Singh finished 2nd on the podium behind Samoa's Sanele Mao in the Men's 105kg category. Pardeep could not quite repeat his gold medal performance from the Commonwealth Championships last year, falling just short, his total of 352 kg (152+200) 8 kilos short of Mao's 360 kg (154+206).
Gurdeep Singh missed out on the bronze as he finished 4th in the Men's +105kg category. Purnima Pandey finished 6th in the Women's +90kg category while Lalchhanhimi could only finish 8th in the Women's 90kg.
Boxing
In round of 16 action, Gaurav Solanki beat Akimos Ampiah of Ghana while Manish Kaushik beat Trinidadian Michael Alexander in Men's 52kg and Men's 60kg classes respectively to move into the quarterfinals.
Athletics
Loganathan Suriya ran a Personal Best time of 32:23.56 minutes in the Women's 10,000m Final, but finished 13th. Tejinder Singh meanwhile finished 8th in the Men's Shot Put Final.
Tejaswin Shankar qualified for the final round of the Men's High Jump. Hima Das made it through to the semis of the Women's 400m, but Poovamma Machettira did not make the grade. And Muhammad Anas Yahiya qualified for the Men's 400m final with the fourth-best time out of all the finalists.
Medals today
Gold: 3 - Jitu Rai (Shooting, Men's 10m Air Rifle), India men's team (Table Tennis), India Mixed Team (Badminton)
Silver: 2 - Mehuli Ghosh (Shooting, Women's 10m Air Rifle), Pardeep Singh (Weightlifting, Men's 105kg)
Bronze: 2 - Om Mitharval (Shooting, Men's 10m Air Rifle), Apurvi Chandela (Shooting, Women's 10m Air Rifle)
