IT RAINED medals for India on the penultimate day of Glasgow Commonwealth Games with the boxers leading the chart clinching seven gold and three silver medals in different weight categories on Saturday. Boxers Preeti Pawar, Jaismine Lamboria, Sakshi Chaudhary, Arundhati Choudhary, Priya Ghanghas, Sachin Siwach, Ankush Phangal all won gold medals. Jadumani Singh, Lovlina Borghain and Narender Berwal clinched silver medals in their weight categories. Apart from boxers, Indian para shot putter Soman Rana claimed a gold medal in men’s F57 event. Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra won silver with a season best javelin throw of 85.83m late on Friday night.

 

Yashvir Singh (85.41m) fetched a surprise bronze with his last throw as two Indians finished on the podium. The day was dominated by boxers with Preeti Pawar winning the women’s 54kg with a dominant 5-0 victory over Canada’s Scarlett Delgado to start India’s golden run. Reigning world champion Jaismine Lamboria then clinched another yellow metal for India with the same scoreline against the defending champion Northern Ireland’s Michaela Walsh. Jaismine took the first round by a split verdict after a close contest with both boxers challenging each other. She then won the second round by a unanimous verdict, having landed some hard blows on her opponents. Sakshi then beat Ruby White of England in women’s 51kg final 5-0 to win India’s third boxing gold of the day. Priya Ghanghas continued India’s golden run defeating Marie-Bathoul Al-Ahmadieh of Canada in women’s 60kg final and then Arundhati Choudhary swelled the golden haul with another one-sided win against Chantelle Reid of England in the women’s 70kg final. In men’s 60kg final, Sachin Siwach gave India its sixth gold medal with a dramatic come from behind win over Namibia’s Tryagain Morning Ndevelo in a 3-2 split decision. Sachin was behind in the first round but bounced back in the next two to clinch the gold medal.

 

Continuing the trend, Ankush Phangal clinched the men’s 80kg bout defeating England’s Dimeji Shittu in a split decision (4-1). However, Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain went down to Australia’s Emma-Sue Greentree 4-1 in a split decision and had to satisfy with a silver. Jadumani Singh, too, settled for a silver in men’s 55kg weight division losing the contest 0-5 against Australia’s Jye Dixon. Narender Berwal went down to England’s Damar Thomas in men’s 90+ final to end India’s boxing campaign with a silver medal. Shot putter Rana, an Asian Para Games silver medallist in 2022, hurled the globe for a season’s best 13.40m to stand on top of the podium. Compatriot Shubham Juyal (season’s best 13.28m) pocketed the silver. In athletics, triple jumpers Praveen Chitravel and Selva Prabhu Thirumaran bagged silver and bronze medal, respectively. Asian Games bronze medallist Chitravel bettered the effort in Glasgow with a silver, which he fetched covering a distance of 16.58m.

 

Compatriot Selva Prabhu was just behind at 16.52m for a bronze -- his first medal of note in international competitions. Judoka Unnati Sharma clinched the bronze medal in the women’s -63kg judo event defeating South Africa’s Skye Knoester by Ippon to push India up in the medals tally. Unnati wrapped up the contest in just one minute and seven seconds with a decisive move, hooking her leg to unbalance Knoester before throwing her cleanly onto her back to earn an Ippon -- the highest score in judo -- and seal the bout instantly. Late on Friday night, Tejaswin Shankar scripted history as he became the first Indian to win a decathlon medal, clinching a bronze. Tejaswin collected a total of 7976 points in the gruelling 10-event discipline competed over two days.