CWG 2018 | Day 8: Complete Domination! Sushil Kumar Bags Gold

Australia advance to the final of the women’s hockey event, courtesy a solitary goal from Grace Stewart. It will be a trans-Tasmanian battle in the final after New Zealand beat England in first semis. Meanwhile, Rani Rampal and Co will now play England on Saturday in a bronze medal match.

Australia’s Grace Stewart finally opens the account for the host in the 37th minute. Stewart hits a fierce shot which hits the back of the net. India’s goalkeeper Savita had no answer for that. India 0-1 Australia.

Mouma Das lose 4-1 against Mengyu Yu in the quarterfinals to crash out of the women’s singles event. Mouma lost 13-15, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7, 5-11.

Seema Punia and Navjeet Dhillon clinch India’s first medals in track and field events. In the women’s discus throw final Seema Punia bags silver with a throw off 60.41 and Navjeet Dhillon throws 57.43 to take home the bronze medal. Australia’s Dani Stevens retained her hold on gold medal won in Glasgow 2014 with a stunning series of throws, including a Games record of 68.26 m to erase New Zealand’s Beatrice Raini Liua Faumuina’s mark of 65.92m in 1998.

Good start! India’s Seema Punia throws 60.41 in her first attempt of the final. She is second on the table behind the local thrower Dani Stevens, who has thrown 68.26, which is a CWG record. India’s Navjeet Dhillon fourth on the list with a throw of 56.22.

Indian women’s hockey team, led by Rani Rampal, face host Australia in the semi-final. The Aussies are favourites but Rani Rampal and Co is capable of an upset. A win here means India will qualify for the final of the Commonwealth Games, where New Zealand is waiting after winning the first semi-final.

Women’s doubles pair N Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa march into the semis after they beat Ren-Ne Ong & Jia Ying Crystal Wong of Singapore in straight sets. They won 21-18, 21-13.

22-year-old Manika Batra wins against Yihan Zhou 4-1 to advance into the last four of the women’s singles event. Manika was in total control of the match, dropping only one game.

Saina Nehwal advances to the quarterfinals of women’s singles event, with her opponent Jessica Li retiring hurt in the 2nd game after surrendering the first game 4-21.

Men’s doubles pair Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty ease past Aatish Lubah and Christopher Jean Paul of Mauritius in straight sets to enter the quarterfinals. They won 21-8, 21-12.

Mouma Das and Manika Batra and also Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe have reached the semi-finals of the women’s doubles table-tennis event.

Manika and Mouma came back from a one-game deficit to beat the English pair of Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos 3-1 (12-14, 11-3, 11-7, 11-6). They now take Malaysia’s Ying Ho and Karen Lyne on Friday.

In another quarter-final, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe had a comfortable 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 14-12) over Canada's Alicia Cote and Mo Zhang.

Two-time Olympic medallist and also two-time CWG gold medallist Sushil Kumar has wrapped up the final in just a minute and 20 seconds.

His third straight Commonwealth Games gold medal.

In the final, Sushil completely dominated South Africa's Johannes Botha as he raced to a 10-0 lead and was awarded the win by ‘technical superiority’. Sushil did not concede a single point in any of his bouts today.

3 out of 3 for India! Three medal bouts so far and India have managed to get on the podium in each category.

After Rahul and Babita, Kiran has bagged the bronze in the 76 kg category with a 5-0 win over Katouskia Pariadhaven of Mauritius.

Kiran was in command throughout, taking a 10-0 lead before the referee stopped the bout and declared the Indian the winner on technical superiority.

Rahul fights through pain to bag India’s first wrestling gold medal of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. A dominating performance from the 26-year-old as he closes out Canada’s Steven Takahashi 3-1 in a contest during which he was troubled by a groin niggle but chose to carry on with more than a minute left on the clock.

This was the first CWG medal of his career after he was forced to miss the Glasgow games due to injury.

The first points of the match come Rahul Aware’s way but his Canadian opponent Steven Takahashi throws him on the mat and takes a 4-2 lead.

3 minute 30 seconds left in the bout and the Indian makes a clean manoeuvre to draw level at 4-4. Right before the break, there’s another winner from Rahul and he takes a 6-4 lead.

India’s first medal in wrestling at the 2018 CWG is a silver, courtesy Babita Kumari.

It was a tough final between her and Diana Weicker but the Canadian proved just too strong as the match ended 5-2.

This is Babita’s second silver at the Commonwealth Games, having finished second in the 2010 Delhi edition as well. In Glasgow four years back, she had bagged the gold in the 55 kg category.

Diana Weicker of Canada stands between Babita Kumari and the gold medal in 53 kg category at Gold Coast.

The final is now underway. Both wrestlers were unbeaten in their group stage matches.

At the end of the first period, Babita trails 0-1.

Sharath Achanta moves to quarter-finals of the men’s singles draw after beating Australia’s Heming Hu 11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5.

PV Sindhu moves to the quarter-finals after beating Australia’s Chen Hsuan-Yu Wendy 21-15, 21-9 in the women’s singles match.

Kidambi Srikanth books a spot in the quarter-finals after defeating Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne 21-10, 21-10.

India’s first medal of the day has, once again, come from the shooting arena.

Tejaswini Sawant has bagged the silver in the women's 50m Rifle Prone event after shooting 618.9 points. Martina Lindsay Veloso of Singapore set a new CWG record of 621.0 to win gold. Seonaid McIntosh of Scotland took bronze with 618.1.

Anjum Moudgil, the other Indian in the fray, produced a disappointing performance. She scored 602.2 to finish 16th in the field of 20 competitors.

Madhurika Patkar loses 9-11, 8-11, 11-2, 3-11, 11-8, 6-11 in the round of 16 women’s singles match.

Pranaav Chopra/N Sikki Reddy defeat Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Jia Ying Crystal Wong 21-19, 21-13 in the round of 16 mixed doubles match.

Satwik Rankireddy/Ashwini Ponnappa beat Canada’s Kristen Tsai/Nyl Yakura 21-10, 21-7 to advance to the quarter-final of the mixed doubles draw.

In lawn bowls, India beat Norfolk Island 25-17 in their final sectional play of the men’s fours team event.

Chandan Kumar Singh, Sunil Bahadur, Alok Lakra and Dinesh Kumar hardly lost any sweat in overcoming their rivals in the second and final match of the section 5.

They will now take on Wales for a place in the semi-finals.

The Indian women's pair of lovely Choubey and Rupa Rani Tirkey saw their campaign end following a 11-17 loss to Malaysia’s Emma Firyana Saroji and Siti Zalina Ahmad.

Babita Kumari too has booked herself a spot in a gold medal match. All victories for her in the 53kg freestyle group stage as she closes it out with a 4-0 win over Carissa Holland of Australia.

In the final Babita will meet Diana Weicker of Canada who has also won all three of her group stage matches.

The fourth Indian wrestler in action today, Kiran will be fighting for the bronze in the 76 kg category.

Defending champion and two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar is all class in Gold Coast as he’s marched into the gold medal match of the 74 kg category.

Australia’s Connor Evans, much like Sushil’s previous opponents, failed to get on the board as the Indian wrestler raced to a 4-0 lead and then bagged a spot in the final courtesy ‘victory by fall’.

No walkovers here. Clearly, none needed.

Rahul’s 57kg freestyle semifinal against Pakistan's Muhammad Bilal finally saw an opponent give the Indian a fight but Rahul still had enough in arsenal to come out on top.

A 12-8 scoreline ensuring he becomes the first Indian wrestler to reach the finals in Gold Coast.

Rahul Aware is also assured of a medal now as he enters the semi-finals of the Men's Freestyle 57 kg category.

Complete domination is all that’s comes to mind as Aware too is awarded the victory by technical superiority. Thomas Cicchini of Australia failed to win even one point before Aware had stacked up 10 in his card. 10-0 lead and the win in India’s.

This is moving quick! Sushil Kumar is already through to the semis of the 74 kg freestyle category. Complete domination by the Indian once again.

The defending champion beat his Pakistani opponent Muhammad Asad Butt by ‘technical superiority’ once again as he raced to a 10-0 lead with Butt failing to get a single point on the board. The umpires stopped the bout and declared a win in the Indian corner.

Next up for Sushil is Australia’s Connor Evans for a spot in the gold medal match.

Her second bout in an hour and Babita Kumari has clinched this one with ease as well. A ‘victory by fall’ for the Indian as Deepika Dilhani of Sri Lanka is beaten 4-0 in the 53kg round robin match.

Rahul Aware has beaten George Ramm of England by technical superiority to enter the quarter-finals of the men's 57 kilogram freestyle category.

Aware powered his way to an 11-0 lead over the English wrestler early in the second round which prompted the judges to award him the bout.

Bouts are awarded on the basis of technical superiority when one wrestler takes a lead of 10 or more points.

Arpinder Singh and AV Rakesh Babu have both qualified for the finals of the event, despite both not nearing the ‘qualifying performance’ mark of 16.60.

With only Dominica’s Yordanys Garcia crossing the mark with 16.75, Arpinder (16.39) and AV Rakesh Babu(15.85) make it through by virtue of being among the 12 best performers in the qualifiers.

A 4-0 win for the defending champion in the 74kg category!

Sushil Kumar has beaten Canada’s Balfour Jevon in his opening bout of the 2018 Commonwealth Games and next fights Pakistan’s Muhammad Asad Butt in the quarterfinals.

A winning start to India’s wrestling campaign in Gold Coast with Babita Kumari beating Bose Samuel of Nigeria in the women’s 53 kg freestyle category.

Samuel had taken the early lead but Babita pulled off a two-point move to put her nose ahead. She earned another point with a take down to bolster her lead.

The victory scoreline was 3-1

In the 100m hurdles event in women’s heptathlon, India’s Purnima Hembram has finished second in her heat with a personal best time of 13.56s.

Early start for India’s table-tennis players with Manika Batra and Mouma Das as well as Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe winning their Round of 16 women’s doubles matches.

Manika and Mouma won 11-4, 11-4 and 11-1 while Sutirtha and Pooja beat the Welsh pair of Charlotte Carey and and Chloe Thomas 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6.

Just 4 more days of the Commonwealth Games left and the some of India’s best are, well, yet to be seen.

Like India’s wrestlers. Yep, finally the wrestling events get underway in Gold Coast and first up are Sushil Kumar and Babita Kumari. Both start their opening bouts at 6am with the finals slated for the afternoon.

Also in action are India’s badminton stars PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal.

One big match of the day is the India women’s hockey team’s semi-final against hosts Australia.