India continued its medal rush on the fifth day of the Commonwealth Games with Jitu Rai bringing in top honours with the gold medal for the 10m air pistol shooting event. India's tally in the 2018 Commonwealth Games now stands at 10 gold, four silver and five bronze.
In the 10m air pistol event, Rai shot 235.1 to finish on top beating Australia's Kerry Bell, who scored 233.5 to win the silver. Accompanying Rai on the podium was Om Prakash Mitharval, who won the bronze with a score of 214.3. Last month, Mitharval had teamed up with Manu Bhaker to claim the mixed team air pistol gold in the ISSF World Cup in Mexico.
India men's table tennis team followed the success of the women's team in the 21st Commonwealth Games and clinched gold, thrashing Nigeria 3-0 in the final. It is the first time since the induction of table tennis into the Commonwealth Games' program that India has topped both categories.
After Manika Batra fired India to a historic triumph over Singapore yesterday, Achanta Sharath Kamal led the team to defeat Bode Abiodun 4-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-9 in the opening match of the final. Kamal was also part of the men's team that won the gold in the 2006 Melbourne edition.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran then went on to beat Segun Toriola to win the second match 10-12, 11-3, 11-3, 11-4.
Harmeet Desai and Gnanasekaran teamed up in the next match to beat the duo of Olajide Omotayo and Abiodun 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 to seal the gold for India. The absence of world number 26 Aruna Quadri, Nigeria's highest-ranked player, was also an added bonus for India.
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Shooters Mehuli Ghosh and Apurvi Chandela added to the medal tally by winning the silver and bronze respectively in the 10m air rifle event.
Seventeen-year-old Ghosh shot an excellent 10.9 to take the finals into a shoot-off with Singapore's Martina Lindsay Veloso, who won the gold with a Commonwealth Games record score of 247.2. Ghosh also aggregated a record 247.2 but a 9.9 in the shoot-off pushed her to the second spot.
Defending champion Apurvi Chandela totalled 225.3 to settle for the bronze. She had earlier smashed her own Commonwealth Games qualifying record from four years back by scoring 423.2, and although Chandela's scores in qualifying were impressive, Ghosh produced a better performance to win the silver.
India reaped the most medals for weightlifting in this year's Commonwealth Games, and Pardeep Singh did not disappoint on the fifth day of the event. Singh secured the silver medal in the 105kg weightlifting final event after a close contest with Samoa's Sanele Mao. The bronze went to England's Owen Boxall 351kg.
Pardeep Singh, the reigning Commonwealth Championships gold-medallist, lifted a total of 352kg (152kg + 200kg). He went for the 211kg lift, which would have been a new Commonwealth and Games record in clean and jerk, but could not pull it off in his final attempt.
India's mixed badminton team clinched its maiden Commonwealth Games gold medal after defeating defending champions Malaysia 3-1 in the final of the event.
Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa won the mixed doubles against Peng Soon Chan and Liu Yong Goh 21-14 15-21 21-15 in the first match of the final. In the second match, Kidambi Srikanth stunned three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee 21-17 21-14.
Goh and Wee Kiong Tan 15-21 20-22 managed to beat the pair of Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the men's doubles to keep Malaysia still in the race. However, Saina denied the Malaysians reason to cheer as she sealed the gold for India with a 21-11 19-21 21-9 win over Soniia Cheah in the women's singles match.