2014 Commonwealth Games Day 8 Highlights: Yogeshwar, Babita Wrestle to Gold, Vikas Gowda Discus Throw Adds More Glitter
Indian wrestlers put up a stunning show to bag a couple of gold medals, a silver and a bronze. Discus thrower Vikas Gowda won India's first gold medal from athletics in 2014 Commonwealth Games. Catch all the live updates here.
Every nation has its specialty. For India, it has been their wrestlers and shooters. India's fifth rank in the standings (13 gold, 20 silver, 14 bronze = 47) after Thursday's events is purely due to the contribution the wrestlers and shooters have made in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. (Schedule and Results | Medals Tally)
07.12 (IST):  India went down to England 12-14 in the semi-finals of the men's fours lawn bowls. They now play for Bronze.
07.10 (IST): Table Tennis: India's men's doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj made it to the semi-finals beating England's Danny Reed and Sam Walker in quarterfinal.
07.05 (IST): Squash: India's squash stars Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa reached the women's doubles semi-finals. They beat New Zealand's Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy 11-9, 11-5.
00:54 (IST): Badminton: Kidambi Srikanth came from a set down to beat Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne 20-22, 21-16, 21-12 and advance to the quarterfinal of men's singles.
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23:38 (IST): Vikas Shive Gowda throws 63.64m to win gold in men's Discus Throw. This is India's 13th gold. Apostolos Parellis of Cyprus wins silver and Jason Morgan of Jamaica gets bronze.
23:25 (IST): India's Tintu Luka finishes seventh in women's 800m semifinal 1.
23.03 IST: Pawan gets two points in the dying seconds and because he scored the final points, he takes the match and bronze. What a stunning turnaround after trailing for most parts.
23.01 IST: Fantastic battle here as both Inam and Pawan battle hard. A series of moves and reversals earn both 2 points each. Pawan trails 4-6.
22.58 IST: Muhammad Inam gets Pawan on his back to pick two more points. Pakistan now lead 4-2, eventually claim 1st period.
22.55 IST: Wrestling: Pawan Kumar fights Pakistan's Muhammad Inam for bronze right now (86kg category). It's 2-2 in 1st period currently.
22.50 IST: Discus Throw: After two throws, Vikas Gowda is third (62.09).
22.40 IST: India today: 2 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze. More medals? Vikas Gowda eyes medal in discus and Pawan Kumar's wrestling bout for bronze to come up shortly.
22.38 IST: Lappage goes for the pin, not successful but enough to get 7-0 win for gold. India get a silver from Jhakar.
22.37 IST: A penalty point against India. Lappage picks one more point before working her way to another. Leads 5-0 with gold in her sights.
22.35 IST: Lappage gets another point against Jhakar who seems to be huffing a bit more than her stronger Canadian opponent. It's 2-0 against the Indian now.
22.33 IST: Jhakar concedes 1st period to Lappage 0-1. Final three minutes coming up in gold medal match.
22.32 IST: Lappage takes 1-0 lead against Jhakar. She is making the Indian look a bit passive and has been trying to chip away some points.
22.30 IST: Both Jhakar and Lappage study each other in the early seconds of the 1st period. Canadian though just appears to have the slight edge. Indian fans trying to negate it though.
22.29 IST: Wrestling: Geetika Jhakar makes her way out to face Danielle Lappage of Canada. This is a match for gold.
22.25 IST: Discus Throw: Vikas Gowda comes out for the final of men's discus throw. Can he get a medal for India from the track and field stadium?
22.10 IST: One final wrestling medal match for India coming up. Geetika Jhakar will come out for her 63kg match in some time.
22.01 IST: Hockey: More good news from the hockey field as India beat South Africa 5-2 to storm into semis.
21:58 IST: GOLD! Yogeshwar hardly breaks a sweat as he brings in India's 12th gold medal. He beats Canada's Jevon Balfour 10-0. (Read report here)
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21.55 IST: Wrestling: Yogeshwar Dutt comes out to wrestle for gold in the 65kg category.
21.53 IST: Captain Sardar Singh shown yellow for dangerously sliding against a South African opponent. India lead 5-2 with six minutes left in the match.
21:47 IST: GOAL! India now have a 5-2 advantage against South Africa. Manpreet scores for the team with a little over 10 minutes left in the match.
21:43 IST: Two yellow cards also shown to South African players.
21.38 IST: India's Chandi shown yellow card!
21.32 IST: GOAL! South Africa score another. Austin Smith makes it 2-4 against India after converting a penalty corner. India too had two penalty corners but failed to convert.
21:29: GOAL! South Africa catch Indian defence napping - score field goal to pull one back.
21.26: Hockey: Indian men continue to dominate South Africa and maintain 4-0 lead five minutes into the second half.
21.20: Wrestling: Babita dominates in 55kg category match against Brittanee Laverdure of Canada to win India's 11th gold medal. (Read report here)
21.12: Hockey: It's half time with India with a comfortable 4-0 lead against South Africa.
21.08 IST: Gymnastics: India's Dipa Karmakar wins bronze in women's vault artistic gymnastics event.
21.03 IST: GOAL! Sunil scores a field goal. India now decimating South Africa with remarkable ease and are 4-0 up with 8 minutes left in first half.
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21.00 IST: GOAL! Ramandeep scores - this time a field goal - to help India pile on more misery on South Africa (3-0).
20.55 IST: Both teams are working hard to get penalty corners. India have already converted two of their three so far.
20.50 IST: A lot of action in the Indian half. South Africa on the attack but are blocked out repeatedly by a determined defensive line.
20.46 IST: GOAL disallowed! South Africa smash in a field goal to pull one back before it was denied after a video referral.
20.44 IST: GOAL! Rupinder Singh makes it 2-0 for India - two of three penalty corners being converted successfully.
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20.40 IST: The Indian team has played solid hockey so far in the tournament. While the men beat Wales and Scotland, they showed fighting spirit against Australia before losing 2-4.
20.36 IST: GOAL! Fantastic start from India. Raghunath scores from a penalty corner as India go 1-0 up against South Africa.
20.33 IST: Hockey: India's final Pool A preliminary match against South Africa begins. A draw here would be enough for a place in the semis.
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20:30 (IST): Indian men's hockey captain Sardar Singh has been reprimanded for inappropriate physical conduct against an opposition player during his side's group match against Australia on Tuesday. (Read more)
20:26 (IST): Men's Hockey Coming Up: India take on South Africa in their final group match. A draw is enough for India to seal their semifinal spot.
20:00 (IST): Badminton: India's RMV Gurusaidutt beats Andrew D'Souza of Canada 21-13, 21-9 to advance to the quarterfinal of men's singles.
19:30 (IST): Badminton: PC Thulasi enters quarterfinal with a 21-12, 21-7 victory over Rachel Honderich of Canada in women's singles.
18:39 (IST): Badminton: Parupalli Kashyap beats Jeff Tho of Australia 21-7, 21-8 to enter men's singles quarterfinals.
18:25 (IST): It's all Indo-Canadian finals in wrestling tonight. Here is the list of contenders and their weight categories
Women's Freestyle 55kg - Babita Kumari vs Canada's Brittanee Laverdure - 21:12 IST
Men's Freestyle 65kg - Yogeshwar Dutt vs Canada's Jevon Balfour - 21:30 IST
Women's Freestyle 63kg - Geetika Jhakar vs Canada's Danielle Lappage - 21:48 IST.
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17.03 (IST): Wrestling: Yogeshwar Dutt is quite unbeatable today. He defeats Chamara Perera of Sri Lanka on technical superiority to enter final in 65kg category. Three Indians now have their sights on gold.
16.58 IST: Wrestling: Pawan Kumar will take on Muhammad Inam of Pakistan for bronze in 86 kg category.
16.54 IST: Wrestling: Out of four Indian wrestlers today, two are eying gold and one for bronze later in the night today. Yogeshwar Dutt's semifinal bout coming up...
16.46 (IST): Wrestling: Babita Kumari pins down Louisa Porogovska of England in a minute and seven seconds to enter final of 55kg category. Did you know? She won the silver in the Delhi edition of CWG in 2010.
16.40 (IST):Wrestling: Pawan Kumar loses to Tamerlan Tagziev of Canada 5-0 in semis of 86kg category.
16.30 (IST):Wrestling: Yogeshwar Dutt storms into semis. He beats Gareth Jones of Scotland 10-0 in Rd 1 in 65kg wrestling.
16.20 (IST): Wrestling: Geetika Jhakar (IND) beats Sarah Connolly (Wales) 13-2, reaches women's freestyle 63 kg final.
15.55 (IST): Wrestling: India's Pawan Kumar beats Scotland's Luigi Bianco 5-0 to advance to semis in 86 kg men's freestyle.
15.55 (IST): Wrestling: Babita Kumari (IND) beats Kathryn Marsh (SCO) 13-2 to reach 55kg wrestling semis.
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15.30 (IST): Wrestling: India's Yogeshwar Dutt has stormed into the quarters. He beats his opponent, Scotland's Vladmir Gladkov 11-0 in the men's freestyle 65 kg category.
15.02 (IST): Table Tennis: Sharath Kamal-Shamini Kumaresan beat Australia's D Powell & JF Lay 3-2 to reach quarters of the Mixed Doubles event.
14.50 (IST): Indian wrestler Pawan Kumar has advanced to the men's freestyle 86 kg quarters. He beat his Kiwi opponent Steve Hill 4-0.
London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt will spearhead India's challenge on the last day of the wrestling competition in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Dutt will be a favourite in the 65 kg freestyle category. Pawan Kumar (86 kg) will the other medal hopeful while two women - Babita Kumari (55 kg) and Geetika Jhakar (63 kg) are a win away from clinching a medal. Babita will start from the quarterfinal round while Geetika is in the semis.
The wrestling competition, spread over three days, has run hot and cold for India. After winning a hattrick of gold medals on Tuesday, India lost four finals on Wednesday. The manner in which the defeats came was worrying. (CWG Day 7 Wrap)
Lalita Sehrawat lasted a little over half-a-minute, World championship bronze medallist Bajrang was outplayed in just over a minute and Sakshi Malik was on the mat just a little longer. All three were caught off-guard by their rivals. Only Satyawart Kadian put up a fight to go the full distance. But even he lost on technical points after the scores were level 4-4 with the Canadian wrestler Arjun Gill. Navjot Kaur won a bronze. India would have surely learnt their lessons.
India's first medal from track and field is expected tonight. Vikas Gowda should finish among the medals in men's discus. Gowda advanced to the final topping qualification round 1 at the Hampden Park Stadium. The silver medallist from the Delhi Games, four years ago, threw 64.32 metres to finish top of the qualification in both rounds. Gowda has a personal best throw of 66.28 metres and he is India's best bet to give the country its first medal from athletics in the Glasgow Games.
Former track queen PT Usha will be on her track side when Tintu Luka competes in the women's 800m semifinal. The 25-year-old Kerala girl advanced as a lucky loser after finishing fourth in Heat 3 with a timing of 2:02.74 seconds. A medal here will be a big surprise. Tonight, Krishna Poonia will also start her campaign in the women's discus event. The Olympian will have to summon her best to make the final rounds. She is definitely a medal hope.
With three more days left for the Games to end, India will expect a slew of medals from badminton, table tennis and squash. The team events over, it's time for the Indians to show their individual class. World championship medallist PV Sindhu and London Games quarterfinalist P. Kashyap will aim to advance to the quarterfinals alongside relatively lesser known names like Srikanth Kidambi and Gurusaidutt.
Sardar Singh's India will be on stage against South Africa. India's women lost to the South Africans on Wednesday to crash out of medal contention. They will now play for the fifth/sixth positions. The men, of course, will aim to do better after losing a well-contested match against the Australians 4-2. A draw against the Proteas should be enough to seal a semifinal spot from India's group.
England (105, including 38 gold medals) and Australia (106, including 35 gold) continue to lead the Commonwealth Games medal standings. Canada (51 with 22 gold), Scotland (39 - 13 gold), New Zealand (36 with 12 gold) and India (41 -- 10 gold) will certainly gun for the third spot as the Games hit the home stretch.