CWG 2018: With 26 golds, India's third best outing ever; top highlights

Showing her dominance throughout the game, Saina Nehwal snatched victory from PV Sindhu by 21-18, 23-21 in the final of women's singles at the 21st Commonwealth Games

India's gold rush continued till the last day of 21st Commonwealth Games at Goldcoast, Australia. Saina Nehwal claimed gold in an all-Indian final of women's singles in badminton on the last day.

With 26 gold medals, the 2018 Commonwealth Games has become India’s third most successful of all time. It has surpassed the medal tally of Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 by two medals — India won 64 medals in Glasgow.

Indian contingent with 200-strong athletics performed brilliantly throughout the tournament. India finished third on the medal tally — Australia tops the chart with 198 medals. England is at the second position with 136 medals. 

The total medal count comes to 66 with India bagging 26 gold medals, 20 silver medals and 20 bronze medals. 

On the final day of 21st Commonwealth Games, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal settled for the silver medal in the final of women's doubles in squash. They lost the match to New Zealand's Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy.

In a neck-and-neck fight, the world number 1 shuttler Kidambi Srikanth won the silver medal in men's singles final.

India's third bronze medal in table tennis came on the last day of 21st Commonwealth Games as well with Sharath Kamal winning his match.

Continuing her glorious run at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Manika Batra grabbed her fourth medal after winning the bronze in the mixed doubles table tennis final with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.

Manika Batra created history by winning the first ever women's singles table tennis gold for India on Saturday. Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal with a season's best of 86.47 m in the fourth throw, scripting another historic record for India. 
 

Here are all the latest developments of 21st Commonwealth Games 2018

1. Saina Nehwal beats PV Sindhu in the final

In a historic match between two Indian superstars, Saina Nehwal beat and P V Sindhu to win a gold medal in women's final. Saina Nehwal's patience and fighting spirit finally paid off in the final. Saina was fired up and played with power and aggression to put Sindhu under pressure right from the start. She took charge of the game right from the start, sealing a 21-18, 23-21 victory in the all-Indian final. This was her Nehwal's second consecutive CWG gold medal in Badminton. 

2. Kidambi Srikanth bags silver

Indian shuttler  Kidambi Srikanth disappointed in the men's singles final by setlling for silver. He lost the match to Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. Srikanth had a good start by winning the first game by 21-19. However, veteran Chong Wei came back in the match and snatched the next two games from Srikanth by 14-21, 14-21. 

3. India claims historic silver in men's badminton doubles

Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty claimed India's first ever medal in men's doubles after settling for a silver at the 21st Commonwealth Games. 

Satwik and Chirag lost by 13-21 16-21 to England's Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge in a 39-minute men's doubles final at the Carrara Sports Arena. 

3. Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa win silver in women's doubles squash

All eyes were set on Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa as they qualified for finals by showing power-packed performance throughout the event. However, the defending champions had to settle for silver medal at the 21st Commonwealth Games. India duo lost to New Zealand's Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy by 0-2. Kiwis dominated the game and clinched a victory by 9-11, 8-11 in a  22-minute clash in the finale. 

This is Dipika Pallikal's second medal at Gold Coast as she has already won silver in the mixed doubles with Saurav Ghosal. 

4. Sharath Kamal bags bronze medal in men's table tennis singles
 

India continued its dream run in Table Tennis with Achanta Sharath Kamal bagging the third bronze medal for India on the final day of 21st Commonwealth Games. 

The world number 48 Indian defeated England's Samuel Walker by 4-1 in the play-off match for the third place. The scorecard showed the dominance of veteran table tennis player Kamal — 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10. Earlier, he also won the silver medal in the men's doubles event.

5. Manika Batra wins bronze medals in mixed doubles

Manika Batra continued her winning streak even on the final day. Teaming with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Batra won her fourth medal at the 21st Commonwealth Games. The duo defeated compatriots Achanta Sharath Kamal and Mouma Das by 3-0 to win the bronze medal in the mixed doubles category. 

With her comfortable win, Manika Batra becomes India's most successful athlete at the Gold Coast Games. Apart from the singles gold, Batra has gold in the women's team event and silver in the women's doubles with Mouma Das. 

Sathiyan won his third medal after winning gold in the men's team event and silver in men's doubles with Sharath.  

6. First Commonwealth Games silver in  super heavyweight boxing

Scripting history, Indian boxer Satish Kumar settled for silver in the final of the 91kg category at the 21st Commonwealth Games on Saturday.

This is the first time India got a silver medal in the super heavyweight category in the Commonwealth Games. Satish lost 0-5 by the unanimous verdict to England's Frazer Clarke, who got 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28 from each of the five judges as totals of the three rounds.

The final proved to be immensely close bout, with both Satish and Clarke looking to match each other in every aspect. The fact that all of the judges gave 10-9 in favour of Clarke at the end of each round underlines the tightly fought bout.  

Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu made India proud at the 21st Commonwealth Games

7. Indian men's hockey disappoints in bronze medal match

India's men's hockey team lost 1-2 to England in the bronze medal playoff at the 21st Commonwealth Games. India had problems in defence throughout the tournament and it was no different on Saturday.

Sam Ward's penalty corner conversion led to England's first goal in the 6th minute. But India restored parity 20 minutes later with a successful penalty corner conversion from Varun Kumar.

Ward gave England again the lead in the 43rd minute, employing a reverse-hand drive past P.R. Sreejesh after his initial drag-flick was blocked by runner Amit Rohidas.

8. India bags historic gold medal in javelin
 

Neeraj Chopra scripted history by becoming the first Indian javelin thrower to claim a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games with a season's best effort of 86.47m. 

"It is a very important medal for me, I wanted to touch my personal best but I missed it by a centimetre. In my desperation for that, I tried so hard that I tumbled over in my last two attempts. But I am very happy and I have a lot of competitions this year to achieve the personal best," joyous Neeraj said after the victory. 

9. Mary Kom will be India's flag-bearer at the closing event: 

Indian boxing legend MC Mary Kom, who claimed a gold medal on debut at the Commonwealth Games, will be India's flag-bearer at the event's closing ceremony on Sunday. 

The 35-year-old five-time world champion, who is also an Olympic bronze-medallist, claimed her maiden CWG gold after beating Northern Ireland's Kristina O'Hara in the light flyweight (48kg) final today.

"This is the first time I will be India's flag-bearer in an event like this. I don't know if I deserve it but I am certainly very proud of it," Mary Kom told media. 

10. India wins 26 gold medals at the 21st Commonwealth Games: 

With an outstanding performance in boxing and table tennis, India finished at the third position in the medal tally. India won 26 gold medal as the athletes showed terrific performance in all the rounds. Youngster Monica Batra clinched four medals for India including her gold medal in the women's singles and in the mixed table tennis event. The total medal count comes to 65 with India bagging 20 silver medals and 20 bronze medals. Australia are leading the medal tally with 72 gold medals. 

Here's India's medal tally at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Shooting	7	4	5	16
Wrestling	5	3	4	12
Weightlifting	5	2	2	9
Boxing	3	3	3	9
Table Tennis	3	2	3	8
Badminton	2	3	1	6
Athletics	1	1	1	3
Squash	0	2	0	2
Para Powerlifting	0	0	1	1