Medals Tally: India moves up to third position while Canada slips to sixth spot
Continuing to satiate its appetite for medals, India added three more gold medals, to move to third position in medals tally pushing Canada to sixth position as the XXI Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast on Monday witnessed several new champions and record holders.
For Canada, it was one of those days when it did not win even a single gold medal . While the hosts Australia continued their dominance in the swimming pool to take their medals tally past the century mark with 39 gold, India moved to third place with 10 gold medals. England remained firmly saddled in second position with 22 gold medals in a tally of 63. At the end of day, Canada had 37 medals, including seven gold.
Swimmer Taylor Ruck has now equalled the record by winning seven medals for Canada in a single edition of Commonwealth Games.
India created records of sorts. It has been for the first time that its shuttlers led by Saina Nehwal won the team (combined) gold medal dethroning Malaysia who had been undisputed champion for the last three editions of the Games.
England finished third in Badminton. Incidentally, one of key players of the English team has been Rajiv Ouseph of Indian origin. Rajiv has represented England in Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games besides World Championships also.
After winning the women's team title defeating Singapore yesterday, Indian men team won the men's title in Table Tennis defeating Nigeria.
India's dominance in weightlifting continued unabated as Pardeep Singh won a silver in 105 kg category.
In shooting Jitu Rai gave India a gold medal 10 m Air Pistol event while his team mate Om Mitharval ended with a bronze. In the women's section of the same event Mehuli Ghosh got a silver medal after losing the shootout to Singaporean shooter. Apurvi Chandela won the bronze in the event.
With just one day of competition remaining in the swimming pool, Canada's Taylor Ruck has now won seven medals in Gold Coast after capturing the bronze in the women's 100m freestyle in 53.08 seconds. Australian sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell stood on the top two steps of the podium, with Bronte setting a Games record time of 52.27 seconds.
With her seventh medal, Ruck tied the Canadian record for most medals won at a single Commonwealth Games. It was another teenage sensation swimmer,Elaine Tanner, who first set the mark in Jamaica in 1966. Bill Sawchuk matched it in the pool at Edmonton 1978.
"I can't believe it, I didn't expect to get all these medals. I knew coming in that this was shaping up to be a very good meet for me," said Ruck. "My only strategy was to keep my head down and go as fast as I could."
For Canada Kierra Smith added a silver in the women's 100m breaststroke, finishing in 1:07.05 to place between South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker, who won gold in 1:06.41, and Australia's Georgia Bohl, who got in for the bronze medal in 1:07.22.
Tim Nedow matched his result from four years ago, winning a second straight shot put bronze at the Commonwealth Games. Nedow threw 20.91m on his sixth and final attempt, placing him behind Tomas Walsh of New Zealand, who hit 21.41m, and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi of Nigeria, who tossed a personal best 21.14m. Nedow needed that clutch throw to move onto the podium, having been sitting in fifth place.
Team Canada captured two more medals on the final day of competition in artistic gymnastics, bringing its total in the sport to 11. Cory Paterson tied for silver on the horizontal bar with England's James Hall. Both men had identical difficulty (5.600) and execution (8.400) scores to finish half a point behind another Englishman, Nile Wilson, who earned a total of 14.533 for the gold medal.
"We came out here with the goal of getting a team medal and individual results were just an extra bonus," said Paterson, who helped Canada win silver in the team event. "I came out and did some good routines on day one and did my job on day two here so I couldn't be happier."
Shallon Olsen earned her second individual medal of the Games, narrowly beating out teammate Cllie Black for the bronze on floor exercise. Olsen had the highest difficulty score (5.500) in the final, so although her execution of her routine wasn't exactly as she hoped, she still earned a total of 13.266 points. Black ended up with 13.200 points. In an extremely tight final, Australian Alexandra Eade earned 13.333 for the gold medal while Latalia Bevan of Wales was second with 13.300.
