Day 2: India shoot to second spot with 5 gold

Two pairs of shooters were bang on target, while the grapplers made a clean sweep of all three titles at stake as India grabbed five gold medals to climb to the second spot in the medals table, below Australia, in the Commonwealth Games today.

The Indian men’s 10m air rifle pair of Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and world record holder Gagan Narang started the gold rush for the country in the morning. It was sustained by women shooters Rahi Sarnobat and Anisa Sayeed, who picked up the pairs 25m pistol event for women in style. Two more silver medals came India’s way from the Dr Karni Singh shooting range before Greco-Roman style grapplers Ravinder Singh (60 kg), Sanjay (74 kg) and Anil Kumar (96 kg) made a clean sweep of all three gold medals on offer from the wrestling mat, to round off a splendid day for the hosts. The two silver medals were earned by Deepak Sharma and Omkar Singh, in the men’s 50m pistol pairs event, and the women’s duo of world champion Tejaswini Sawant and Lajjakumari Gauswami, who stood second in the pairs 50m rifle 3 position.