Six wrestlers were in action on Friday at the Commonwealth Games and each of them finished on the podium, taking India's total medal count to 26 - 9 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze.
Olympic bronze medallists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Deepak Punia bagged gold medals at the Victoria Park Arena at Coventry while Anshu Malik lost her gold medal match. Mohit Grewal and Divya Kakran both bagged a bronze each.
There was heartbreak for the Indian women's hockey team who draw Australia 1-1 in regulation time but were defeated 3-0 in the penalty shootout.
Here's a wrap of all of India's big results on Day 8 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
CWG 2022: Deepak Punia, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia celebrate winning gold medals in Birmingham.
(Photo: PTI)
6 Medals in Wrestling
Indian wrestlers opened their campaign at the 2022 CWG with each member in action on Friday finishing on the podium.
Such was Bajrang's dominance in the 65kg competition that he won three of his four bouts in the first round itself. Canada's Lachlan McNeil fought well in the final but the Indian, yet again, was far superior in technique and stamina as he won 9-2.
For Sakshi Malik, her gold marked the culmination of years of hard work and a struggle to get back into the wins, after she hit a lull in form following her Rio Olympics medal. In Birmingham, during the final she actually was trailing Ana Paula Gonzalez 4-0 before she scored on counter-attack and won the bout.
Deepak Punia (86kg) was calculative in his bouts and finished on top of the podium without losing a single point. In the final against Pakistan's Muhammad Inam, the 23-year-old Indian had better stamina and outlasted Inam 3-0.
Anshu Malik and Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye of Nigeria react after their match during the 2022 CWG.
(Photo: PTI)
Anshu, who has taken rapid strides in her career, reached the women's 57kg final with similar dominance but ended up second-best with a silver medal.
Divya had got a tough 68kg draw as she fought Tokyo Olympic silver medallist and 11-time African champion Blessing Oborududu from Nigeria in her campaign-opener. After losing to her, Divya won her repechage round against Blandine Nyeh Ngiri by fall. Also winning bronze was Mohit Grewal (125kg) who beat Jamaica's Aaron Anthony Johnson by fall to win the bronze.
Assured Medal in Lawn Bowls
India are assured of a second medal from lawn bowls after the men's fours team made its way into the final.
The men's quartet of Sunil Bahadur (lead), Navneet Singh (second), Chandan Kumar Singh (third) and Dinesh Kumar (skip) defeated hosts England by a close 13-12 margin in the semifinal to assure India of at least a silver medal.
Earlier in the day, the women's pair of Lovely Choubey and Nayanmoni Saikai were knocked out of the Games after they went down in the quarterfinals.
Vandana Katariya celebrates after scoring her side's first goal during the women's semifinal match against Australia at the 2022 CWG.
(Photo: PTI)
Hockey: Women's Team Lose to Australia in Shootout
It was a heartbreak for the Indian women's hockey team as it lost 0-3 in the shoot-out to four-time champions Australia after both the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time in the semifinal.
Australia took the lead in the 10th minute through Rebecca Greiner before Vandana Katariya equalised for India in the 49th minute.
The Indians, however, would consider themselves unlucky as Ambrosia Malone initially missed her first attempt in the shootout for Australia but the umpires gave her a second chance as they said the clock didn't start on time. She went onto make it 1-0 following which Kaitlin Nobbs and Amy Lawton also converted. For India, Lalremsiami, Neha Goyal and Navneet Kaur missed attempts.
Table-Tennis: Sharath Kamal Wins in 3 Events, Manika Loses Singles
Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal put up a sensational show to progress to the semifinals of all his three events in the table tennis competition.
The record nine-time national champion, who has as many as 10 CWG medals to his name, entered the men's singles semifinals after beating Nigeria's Olajide Omotayo 4-2 in a thrilling contest. The 40-year-old also reached the semifinals of mixed and men's doubles competition along with his respective partners.
Women's singles defending champion Manika Batra had a bad day as she suffered a 0-4 defeat against Jian Zeng of Singapore in the women's singles quarterfinal to bow out of the competition. She and Sathiyan also lost 2-3 to Malaysia's Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, while men's pairing of Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai also ended their campaign with a 0-3 loss to Singapore's Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Poh Shao Feng Ethan.
Sreeja though dished out superlative performances to progress to the women's singles semifinals to go with her mixed doubles performance. The 24-year-old beat Mo Zhang of Canada 9-11, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-8 in her quarterfinal match.
Gnanasekaran also reached the men's singles quarters, beating Nicholas Lum 4-2 at the NEC Hall. However, Sanil Shetty lost 2-4 to Nigeria's Bode Abiodun.
Athletics: Men's 4x400 Relay Team in Final, Hima Out in 200m Semis
The Indian men's 4x400m relay team qualified for the final at the Commonwealth Games after finishing second in its qualifying heat.
The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Noah Nirmal Tom, Mohammed Ajmal and Amoj Jacob took the automatic qualification route, clocking 3:06.97s to finish second behind Kenya in heat 2. The final will be held on Sunday.
Star sprinter Hima could not go past the semi-finals of the 200m event. The 22-year-old from Assam finished third in semifinal 2 with a timing of 23.42 seconds and thus missed out of the final with the finest of margins as her timing was just 0.01 seconds shy of the last qualifier.
In women's 100m hurdles, national record holder Jyothi Yarraji crashed out in the first round heats with a below-par show.
Ancy Sojan also failed to qualify for the women's long jump final. She was ranked 13th overall in the qualifying round with a best jump of 6.25m, which was wind-assisted (tailwind of 2.3m/s).
India's PV Sindhu plays a shot against Uganda's Husina Kobugabe in the women's singles Round of 16 badminton match at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday.
(Photo: PTI)
Badminton: Sindhu, Srikanth, Sen Sail Into Quarters
PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen registered easy wins to storm into the quarterfinals of singles events. Sindhu, a silver medallist at the 2018 edition, faced almost no resistance from Uganda's Husina Kobugabe, winning 21-10 21-9.
Srikanth, who had also finished second best at Gold Coast, too didn't break any sweat on his way to a 21-9 21-12 win over Sri Lanka's Dumindu Abeywickrama in men's singles.
Sen, a world championships bronze medallist, too advanced into the last eight with a 21-9 21-16 win over Australia's Ying Xiang Lin, while Aakarshi Kashyap prevailed 21-2 21-7 over Cyprus' Eva Kattirtzi to ease into the quarters.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also cantered to a 21-8 21-7 win over Pakistan's Murad Ali and Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti to seal their place in the men's doubles quarterfinals.
Squash: Dipika-Saurav Enter Semis
Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal progressed to the semifinals of the mixed doubles event at the Commonwealth Games.
The Indian duo beat Rachael Grinham and Zac Alexander of Australia 11-9 11-5 in the quarterfinals.
Velavan Senthil Kumar and Abhay Singh scripted a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Scotland's Douglas Kempsell and Alan Clyne to advance to the quarterfinals of men's doubles event.
Joshana Chinappa and Dipika lost 0-2 to Yiwen Chan and Ainaa Ampandi of Malaysia in women's doubles.
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