Highlights
- India's boxers win a record seven gold medals and top the boxing medals table.
- Judokas complete their best-ever Commonwealth Games campaign with four medals.
- Para athletes record India's best-ever Commonwealth Games performance as the country moves to fourth in the medals table.
INDIA's boxers produced their best-ever Commonwealth Games performance by winning a record seven gold medals on Saturday (1), while the judokas and para athletes also enjoyed landmark campaigns as the country climbed to fourth in the medals table.
India collected eight gold medals on the penultimate day of competition to move to 13 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze medals, taking their overall tally to 39. Australia led the standings with 62 gold medals, ahead of England (26) and Canada (18).
Boxing accounted for seven of India's eight gold medals. Soman Rana claimed the other title in the men's F57 para shot put.
India also topped the boxing medals table with seven gold and three silver medals, improving on its previous best at the Commonwealth Games, with three gold medals at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
The women's team led the charge. Reigning world champion Jaismine Lamboria (57kg), Asian Games medallist Preeti Pawar (54kg), Asian champion Priya Ghanghas (60kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (51kg) and Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) all won gold medals. Olympic medallist Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) finished with silver.
In the men's competition, Sachin Siwach (60kg) and Ankush Panghal (70kg) won gold, while Jadumani Singh (55kg) and Narender Berwal (+90kg) took silver.
India also enjoyed its best Commonwealth Games campaign in judo.
Unnati Sharma secured bronze in the women's 63kg event by defeating South Africa's Skye Knoester by ippon in one minute and seven seconds. She had earlier lost to Australia's Saya Middleton in the semi-finals before bouncing back to finish on the podium.
Her medal took India's judo tally to four, the country's highest at a Commonwealth Games.
Harsh Singh (men's -60kg) and Asmita Dey (women's -48kg) had already become India's first Commonwealth Games judo gold medallists, while Yamini Mourya added silver in the women's -57kg category.
India could add to that total on the final day with Ishroop Narang (women's -78kg), Avtar Singh (men's -100kg) and Yash Ghangas (men's +100kg) still in contention.
Harsh Tokas narrowly missed a bronze in the men's -81kg event after losing to Australia's Keishin Ochi by ippon. Inunganbi Takhellambam (women's -70kg) and Karanjit Singh Maan (men's -90kg) exited after losing their repechage bouts.
Para athletes also performed well
Para athletes also delivered India's best Commonwealth Games performance.
Rana won gold in the men's F57 para shot put with a season-best throw of 13.40m, while compatriot Shubham Juyal took silver with 13.28m to complete an Indian one-two.
In athletics, Gulveer Singh became the first Indian to win a Commonwealth Games medal in the men's 5,000m after taking bronze in 13:24.95. Having already won silver in the 10,000m, he also became the first Indian track and field athlete to win two medals at a single Commonwealth Games.
India added two more medals in the men's triple jump, with Praveen Chithravel taking silver with 16.58m and Selva Prabhu Thirumaran winning bronze with 16.52m behind Jamaica's Jordan Scott (16.72m).
Elsewhere, Dev Kumar Meena finished fourth in the men's pole vault with 5.30m, Kuldeep Kumar was sixth with 5.10m, Ramesh Shanmugam placed seventh in the men's T54 1,500m para final and Priyanka Goswami finished seventh in the women's 10,000m race walk with a season-best 45:53.93. Ravina was disqualified in the same event.
India's 28-member para sports team ended its campaign with seven medals — three gold, two silver and two bronze — matching the total number of medals the country had won across all previous Commonwealth Games editions since para sports were introduced in 2002.
Six of those medals came in para athletics, while Jhandu Kumar won bronze in para powerlifting. The para athletics team also ended India's 20-year wait for a Commonwealth Games medal in the sport, the previous one having come in 2006. Track cycling and para track cycling events remain on Sunday's (2) programme.
(with inputs from PTI)
