The women’s 4x400m relay quartet grabbed the second athletic gold medal for India in as many days, while four bronze medals, too, were plucked by the host nation on another glorious day for India at the Commonwealth Games when the men’s hockey team made their maiden entry into the final.
The 1,600m relay squad of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Chidananda Ashwini and Mandeep Kaur ran a blistering race to cross the line first in three mins, 27.77 secs to give India their 32nd gold medal of the Games, a new high from a single edition for the country. The hosts also maintained their second position in the medals table behind Australia, with a tally 32-25-32.
India’s previous record gold tally was 30 from Manchester, England eight years ago.
The hosts, who made a clean sweep of the women’s discus throw yesterday, with Krishna Poonia becoming the first athlete in 52 years to bag a gold, also picked up the 4x100m men’s and women’s relay bronze medals in 38.89 and 45.25secs respectively.
| CWG MEDALS TALLY ON MONDAY | |||
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Australia | 68 | 45 | 40 |
| India | 32 | 25 | 32 |
| England | 30 | 50 | 41 |
| Canada | 25 | 16 | 32 |
| South Africa | 11 | 10 | 13 |
To add lustre to their stupendous display was the men’s bronze medals claimed by triple jumper Renjith Maheswary (17.07m, new national record bettering his own 17.04m) and javelin thrower Kashinath Naik (74.29m) to make it a fabulous day in track and field events for the hosts.
With only the men’s and women’s marathon races remaining, to be held on the last day (October 14), the country emerged with an unprecedented haul of a dozen medals, including two gold, from the blue riband discipline of the Games.
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Earlier, the women’s shooting pair of Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh grabbed the gold in 10m air pistol, the 31st won by India here, to open the medal harvest on the ninth day of competitions, which was marred by the second doping scandal.
Heena and Annu claimed the gold after some tense moments, as both Australia and Canada competed on even keel. It was also the 14th gold won by India in shooting.
To cap a stupendous day for the hosts, the men’s hockey squad came back from 1-3 down to send England packing in the semi-finals via the penalty shoot-out after the teams locked 3-3 at full time. India won the tie-break 5-4 for an overall victory margin of 8-7. Sarvanjit Singh (2) and Vikram Pillay scored in regular time. After a goaless extra time play, India were bang on target in the shoot-out, finding the target on all five occasions. A great save by goalkeeper Bharat Chetri denied England’s Glenn Kirkham to put the hosts into Thursday’s final against world and defending champions Australia.
In 10m air pistol (pairs) shooting for women, after the final round, three teams were tied on 759 points. India and Australia shot 21 perfect 10s in the shoot-off but the hosts were adjudged winners on count-backs. Canada took the bronze, shooting 14 perfect 10s.
The Dr Karni Singh shooting range continued to be the best medal harvesting ground for the country, though star marksman Gagan Narang fell out of medal bracket for the first time. But Gagan Narang, one short of Jung’s gold haul four years ago at Melbourne, with four in his kitty, failed to get into the medal bracket for the first time here by finishing a disappointing fifth with his partner, Hariom Singh, in the 50-metre rifle prone pairs event.
