Glasgow, Jul 30 (PTI): Heavyweight weightlifter Lovepreet Singh’s Commonwealth Games record-breaking silver medal headlined an eventful day for India, while Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and two compatriots advanced to the men’s javelin throw final here on Thursday.
National record holders Praveen Chithravel and Selva Prabhu also progressed in triple jump.
Lovepreet shattered the Commonwealth Games snatch record with a lift of 176kg before settling for silver in the men’s +110kg category after a gripping duel with New Zealand’s David Andrew Liti, who snatched gold by just one kilogram with a Games record clean and jerk effort.
India, however, endured disappointment in athletics with Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor finishing fifth in the men’s shot put final, extending the country’s wait for a maiden Commonwealth Games medal in the event.
National record holders Animesh Kujur (200m) and Vishal TK (400m) also failed to reach their respective finals.
Teenage weightlifter Martina Devi narrowly missed a medal on her Games debut, finishing fifth in the women’s +86kg event, while the men’s lawn bowls pair maintained its unbeaten run.
Lovepreet’s silver caps successful campaign =========================== Lovepreet produced the performance of his career, setting a Games record of 176kg in snatch before finishing with a total of 388kg (176kg+212kg), just one kilogram behind Liti (389kg).
The Punjab lifter carried a commanding 10kg lead into the clean and jerk but Liti overturned the deficit with a Games record lift of 223kg in his final attempt after Lovepreet failed to complete a courageous 217kg lift that would have secured gold.
The silver improved Lovepreet’s bronze from the previous Games and completed India’s weightlifting campaign with eight medals — one gold, six silver and one bronze.
In the women’s +86kg event, 18-year-old Martina Devi recovered brilliantly after failing her first two snatch attempts, successfully lifting 105kg in her final attempt to stay in contention. She eventually totalled 245kg (105kg+140kg) but missed out on fourth place on countback after failing lifts of 144kg and 146kg in clean and jerk.
Neeraj, Rohit, Yashvir in javelin final; shot put disappointment ====================================== Neeraj Chopra, Rohit Yadav and Yashvir Singh all progressed to Friday’s men’s javelin throw final despite difficult, gusty conditions that prevented any athlete from breaching the automatic qualifying mark of 84m.
Chopra finished fifth with 79.61m, while Rohit (78.37m) and Yashvir (78.36m) placed ninth and 10th respectively as all three Indians advanced.
“The conditions were not the best for javelin throwers. It was not only cold but also windy… nobody was able to decode the wind,” Chopra said after qualification.
In the men’s shot put final, Toor managed a best effort of 20.27m to finish fifth, while Samardeep Singh Gill ended seventh with 20.03m as India’s search for its first Commonwealth Games medal in the event continued.
Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi clinched gold with a fifth-round throw of 21.07m.
There was better news in the men’s triple jump as Chithravel (16.41m) and Prabhu (16.26m) advanced to Saturday’s final after finishing second and third in qualification.
However, Animesh Kujur missed the men’s 200m final after clocking 20.65 seconds to finish sixth in his semifinal, while Vishal TK also bowed out after placing sixth in his 400m semifinal with a time of 46.33 seconds.
Lawn bowls: Indian pair stays unbeaten ========================= The Indian men’s pair of Navneet Singh and Dinesh Kumar registered their third successive win, edging Botswana in a tie-break after the teams split the opening two sets.
The Indians dominated the first set 9-2 before Botswana levelled the contest by winning the second set 4-3. Navneet and Dinesh, however, held their nerve in the tie-break to preserve their unbeaten record and strengthen their hopes of reaching the knockout stage.
In women’s singles, section C, Malaysia’s Emma Firyana Saroji beat India’s Nayanmoni Saikia 1-.5-0.5 Cycling: Lisha exits; men’s sprint team seventh ============================= Teenage para cyclist Lisha Das finished sixth and last in the women’s C4-C5 4,000m individual pursuit qualification with a timing of 6:58.000 and failed to advance.
In the men’s team sprint, the Indian trio of Rojit Singh, David Beckham and Ronaldo Singh finished seventh and last among the competing teams after clocking 46.396 seconds in qualifying. PTI APA APS APS ATK
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