India at Commonwealth Games 2014: Shooter Apurvi Chandela wins gold

Glasgow: Apurvi Chandela gave a stunning exhibition of skill and concentration to clinch a gold medal while Ayonika Paul and Prakash Nanjappa claimed a silver each as shooters added three more medals to India's kitty on the third day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games on Saturday.

21-year-old Chandela was the star performer by taking the honour in the women's 10 m air rifle event with a score of 206.7 to provide the second gold medal from the shooting arena after Abhinav Bindra's swansong gold medal effort on Friday.

Ayonika Paul, 21, also turned the spotlight on herself by bagging the silver medal in the same event while Nanjappa had to be content with a silver, narrowly missing out on the yellow metal due to a lapse of concentration.

With three more medals, India took their overall medals tally to 13 with four gold, six silver and three bronze medals and were placed fifth on the medals table.

England are at top with 35 medals, including 13 golds.

Australia also have 35 medals but placed second as they have 12 golds. Hosts Scotland are third with 17 medals out which seven are yellow metal. Canada also have seven gold but their total is 13 medals.

Nanjappa paid the price for a horrendous shot midway into the final round as he lost concentration and shot a disappointing 7.7 to hand the lead to eventual winner Daniel Repacholi of Australia.

Despite the setback in the sixth shot of the elimination stage, the 38-year-old Banglorean tried his best to catch up with the Australian but failed to do so in the end and had to settle with a silver at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre at Dundee near here.

Repacholi won the gold with a total of 199.5 while Prakash scored 198.2. England's 60-year-old Michel Gault got the bronze.

Nanjappa, who topped the qualification round, was ruffled by that mistake and he was taking deep breaths in between the shots. A team member later said Prakash felt time constraint and that was why the grip over his pistol was not proper when he shot 7.7.

Before the last round, Repacholi had taken a lead of 1.4 points but he could only come up with a 9.3 in the penultimate shot and Prakash could have narrowed down the gap. The Indian could not do that as he also shot a 9.3 at a crucial juncture.

Nanjappa was the first to fire the last shot and he came up with a 10.5, putting pressure on his Australian opponent.

But Repacholi fired a 10.4 to run away with the gold. The other Indian in the fray, Om Prakash had failed to qualify for the final round.

In men's skeet event, India's Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Baba Bedi failed to advance to the semifinals after finishing seventh and 19th in the qualification round. The top eight shooters qualify for the semifinals.

Four Indian judokas kept themselves in the reckoning for a bronze medal in the higher weight categories on the third and concluding day of the martial art event.

In the men's event, Sahil Pathania (upto 100 kg) and Parveen Kumar (+100 kg) will be vying for bronze medal via repechage bouts while Jina Devi Chongtham (upto 78 kg) and Rajwinder Kaur (+78 kg) also reached the medal round.

India's leading squash players Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal secured hard fought victories to reach the singles quarterfinals.

Fourth seed Ghosal had a narrow escape against Australian Steven Finitsis as he recovered from 6-7 down in the fifth and deciding game to pull off a 11-2, 11-5, 4-11, 6-11, 11-8 victory at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

With this victory, Ghosal became the first Indian to reach the singles quarterfinals since the sport was introduced in the Games programme in 1998. He next plays 12th seed Campbell Grayson of New Zealand .

Soon after Ghosal's win, sixth seed Pallikal matched her compatriot's feat by getting past 15th seed Delia Arnold of Malaysia 11-6, 12-10, 11-5 in a match lasting 40 minutes.

The Commonwealth Games debutant faces England's fourth seed Alison Waters in the quarterfinals. 

The Indian women's table tennis team blanked New Zealand, a side full of Chinese-origin players, to march into the semifinals at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

Shamini Kumaresan starred in India's 3-0 win over New Zealand. They face Singapore, whom they lost to at Delhi Games to settle for silver, in the semifinals later on Saturday.

The ploy to play Shamini in the first singles against 52-year-old Chun Li worked. The Indian played a solid match to beat 2002 singles Commonwealth Games champion and five-time Olympian 5-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5.

Delhi girl Manika Batra, who plays with a pimpled rubber, outsmarted Chunl Li's sister Karen 11-13, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 to give India a 2-0 cushion.

In the doubles rubber, being played in the team competition for the first time at Games, Shamini and Madhurika Patkar outplayed Karen and Yang Sun 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 for India's well deserved victory.