Shooters continue to bring laurels for India (Roundup)

Glasgow, July 28 (IANS) The in-form shooters kept the tri-colour flying, clinching a gold, and two silvers Monday as India moved up to the fourth spot in the medal standings on day five of the Commonwealth Games here.

Jitu Rai and Gurpal Singh opened India's medal conquest during the day winning the gold and silver respectively in the 50-metre pistol event before seasoned marksman Gagan Narang ensured a second highest podium finish in men's 50-metre rifle prone at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre here.

With a haul of seven gold, 11 silvers and seven bronze pieces, India overtook Canada to take the fourth spot after Australia, England and hosts Scotland.

Armyman and amateur flute player Rai won the gold in style setting a Finals Games Record (FGR) collecting a total of 194.1 points. Earlier, Rai also broke the Commonwealth Games record in the qualifiers where he again topped, amassing 562 points, a sizeable 15 points ahead of Englishman Kristian Callaghan in second.

In the finals, the 26-year-old Lucknow man took off brilliantly with 29.7 points in the first round and kept his lead till the end.

With 187.2 points, Gurpal, who hails from Punjab's Bathinda, came in second. Gurpal had finished sixth in the qualifiers with 538 points.

Narang then brought India their 12th medal from shooting after finishing behind Australian veteran Warren Potent. Narang -- who has bagged eight CWG gold medals -- had to settle for the silver, as the 52-year-old Potent won the yellow metal in style by setting the Finals Games Record (FGR) with a score of 204.3 points.

Narang, who also won the 2012 London Olympic bronze in 10m air rifle, fought hard till the finish but had to give in with a score of 203.6 points.

This is the Hyderabadi's ninth medal at the Commonwealth Games and his first silver. The 31-year-old won four golds in 2006 Melbourne and four more yellow pieces in 2010 at home in Delhi.

The other Indian in the fray, Joydeep Karmakar missed the final cut-off by a whisker as he finished ninth with 617 points, 1.3 behind the eighth and last qualifier for the finals.

More laurels are expected from the range Tuesday as Harpreet Singh topped the qualification stage 1 of the men's 25-metre rapid fire pistol event and Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar was fourth in the qualifiers of the same event.

Continuing the gallant show, Mansher Singh topped the men's trap qualification while Manavjit Sandhu finished third.The qualification will continue Tuesday and will be followed by the semi-finals, bronze medal playoff and the gold medal contest.

But shooters Meena Kumari and Lajja Gauswami disappointed in women's 50-metre rifle prone finals, managing the sixth and 11th spots.

Indian shooters Shreyasi Singh and Seema Tomar also failed to qualify for the women's trap semi-finals, narrowly missing out on the qualification mark.

In the boxing ring, Sumit Sangwan registered a comfortable 3-0 win over Mohammed Hakimu Fumu of Tanzania to reach the quarterfinals of the men's 81kg category here.

However, the paddlers, squash players and shuttlers failed to add their names to the medal bracket.

In squash singles, Saurav Ghosal and Anaka Alankamony bit the dust, bringing to an end their individual campaigns. While Ghosal lost his men's singles bronze medal match 1-3 to England's Peter Barker, Anaka went down in the women's singles plate final with a similar scorelineto Deon Saffery of Wales.

India's men table tennis players suffered a disappointing finish in the team bronze medal playoff, losing to Nigeria 1-3. India, who had won the bronze in the same category four years ago at home in New Delhi, started well by winning the first singles match but lost the next three to go down to the Africans at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

Indian para-discus thrower Jai Deep narrowly missed out on the bronze medal finishing fourth in the men's F44/42 final.

Indian shuttlers failed to replicate the performance of the 2010 Commonwealth Games losing the mixed team bronze medal playoff 2-3 to Singapore. India, who won silver four years ago at home, could not come out with their best show, losing all three doubles matches, including the final crucial women's doubles, to go down to the city-state.

Late Sunday, it was double delight for India in men's weightlifting as Satish Sivalingam won the gold and Ravi Katulu the silver in the 77kg Group A at the Clyde Auditorium.

Satish lifted a total of 328 kg to set a Games Record while Ravi got the silver with a total lift of 317 kg.