Commonwealth Games 2018 Day 9, India results and roundup: 15-year old Anish creates history, boxers and wrestlers continue to impress

As 15-year old Anish Bhanwala soaked in the massive applause at the end of his gold-medal victory in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event, India registered its 17th gold medal in the competition, the second of Day 9 after Tejaswini Sawant's top-place finish in the Women's 50m rifle event with a score of 457.9, a new Commonwealth Games Record score.

Bajrang, India's lone representative in the 65kg freestyle wrestling category clinched the third gold medal of the day after he crushed Wales' Kane Charig in the finals. Mausam Khatri and Pooja Chanda won silver medals in their respective categories while Divya Kakran finished with the bronze medal from the 68kg category.

Table Tennis

In the men's doubles category, Achanta Sharath/Sathiyan Gnanasekaran booked a spot in the finals with a dominating 7-11, 11-5, 11-1, 11-3 over Singapore's Pang Yew/Shao Feng but unfortunately, the duo of Harmeet Desai/Sanil Shankar Shetty fell to the English might in the second semifinal.

Achanta Sharath/Mouma Das breezed through their quarterfinals clash against China's Wang Zhen/Zhang Mo while Gnanasekaran Sathiyan/Manika Batra won 11-6, 12-10, 14-12 over Singapore's Pang Xue Jie/Zhou Yihan. However, lady luck did not shine on the duo of Sanil Shankar Shetty/Madhurika Patkar as they failed to move into the semifinals.

Singapore's duo of Feng Tianwei/Mengyu Yu overcame a stiff challenge from India's Suthirta Mukherjee/Pooja Sahasrabudhe in the semifinals of the women's doubles category before Manika Batra/Mouma Das clinched the silver medal having fallen just short of the Singaporean duo in the finals.

In the men's quarterfinals, India was represented by Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Achanta Sharath. Sharath continued his dominance with a thrilling 9-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 win over England's Liam Pitchford while Harmeet and Gnanasekaran missed out on the next stage with losses to Nigeria's Aruna Quadri and England's Samuel Walker respectively.

Athletics

In the men's javelin throw event, Neeraj Chopra qualified from Group A with an impressive 80.42 throw and is set to join Vipin Kashana in the finals, who qualified from Group B with a 78.88 throw.

Purnima Hembram continued to excel in the women's heptathlon with a 5.96m attempt on the long jump, a 41.57 throw in the javelin throw and a third-place finish in the 800m with a timing of 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

Jinson Johnson finished second in the 1500m heats with a timing of 3:47:04 minutes while the men's 4x400m relay team qualified for the finals.

Badminton

Sikki.N.Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa made an entry into the women's doubles semifinals with a 21-11, 21-13 win over Sri Lanka's Hasini Ambalangaodage/MD Beruwelage to go with Satwik Rankireddy/Chirag Chandra Shetty's 21-14, 15-21, 21-9 win in the men's doubles category.

Ritvika Gadde's surprise retirement in the women's quarterfinals did not hamper Saina Nehwal or PV Sindhu's run as the two top shuttlers emerged victorious to move into the semifinals.

Srikanth Kidambi and HS Prannoy too asserted their dominance to move into the semifinals while the duo of Satwik Rankireddy/Ashwini Ponnappa won 21-19, 21-19 to seal a spot in the semifinals of the mixed doubles category.

However, it was the end of the road for Pranaav Chopra/ Sikki N Reddy lost to Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying in two straight games.

Squash

Dipika Pallikal Karthik/Joshna Chinnappa continued to impress with an assertive 11-7, 5-11, 11-9 win over Canada's Samantha Cornett/Nikki Todd in the women's doubles quarterfinals in addition to Dipika's finals qualification along with Sourav Ghoshal in the mixed doubles category.

Vikram Malhotra/Ramit Tandon, however, bowed out of the competition owing to a loss to the dynamic English duo of Declan James/James Willstrop.

Boxing

It was a good day for the Indian boxers as Amit moved into the semifinals of the 46-49kg category with a 5-0 win over Uganda's Juma Miiro. In the 52kg category, Gaurav Solanki's dominating 4-0 victory over Sri Lanka's M.V.I Bandara to book a spot in the finals.

Manish Kaushik's entry into the 60kg category finals with a 4-1 win over England's James McGivern went with Vikas Krishnan's superb 5-0 show against Northern Ireland's Steven Donnelly in the 75kg category.

However, all was not rosy as the duo of Naman Tanwar and Manoj Kumar lost in the semifinals of the 91kg and 69kg categories respectively.

Hockey

India's campaign at the 2018 Commonwealth Games was brought to a stop as New Zealand emerged victorious in the semifinals with the scoreline reading 3-2 as the final whistle blew at full-time.