Indian wrestlers Rahul Aware and Sushil Kumar entered the finals of their respective categories in the men's freestyle competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG).
Aware, appearing in his first CWG in the men's 57 kilogram category, did well to qualify for the summit clash in style.
He did face some trouble from a spirited Muhammed Bilal of Pakistan in the semi-finals before taking a thrilling 10-8 victory.
He will meet Steven Takahashi of Canada in the final.
The Canadian defeated Ebikewenimo Welson of Nigeria in the other semi-final.
Aware's semi-final was a thrilling contest at Bilal came up with a spirited performance.The Pakistani attacked right from the start but the Indian pulled off an effective counter-attack to take a 3-0 lead.
Bilal continued to attack and managed a takedown which earned him two points.
In the men's 74kg freestyle category, Sushil overpowered Jevon Balfour of Canada by technical superiority to enter the quarter-finals.
Another technical superiority verdict over Muhammad Asad Butt of Pakistan propelled him into the semi-finals where he overpowered Australia's Connor Evans by fall in the very first round.Indian badminton mixed doubles pairs of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwik Rankireddy, and N.Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Chopra advanced to the quarter-finals at the 21st Commonwealth Games.
Ashwini and Satwik took just 25 minutes to thrash Canadian duo of Kristen Tsai and Nyl Yakura 21-10, 21-7 in their round of 16 encounter at the Carrara Sports Arena.
In the quarter-finals, they will be up against the winner between Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie and Ghana's Emmanuel Donkor and Stella Amasah.
Indian athletes Arpinder Singh and A.
V.
Rakesh Babu entered the final of the men's Triple Jump competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG).
Arpinder did well during the qualification stage, taking the top spot in Group B to enter the final in style.
The Punjab athlete registered a best attempt of 16.39 metres to finish ahead of Namibia's Roger Haitengi who jumped 16.36m.
Babu on the other hand, finished fifth Group A with 15.98m to advance as one of the 12 best performers.
India were off to a bright start in table tennis mixed doubles competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games with all the three pairs advancing to the quarter-finals.The veteran duo of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Mouma Das started the march to the quarters by inflicting a 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-9) straight games defeat over English pair of David McBeath David and Kelly Sibley.
Sharath and Mouma will next face Canada's Wang Zhen and Zhang Mo for a place in the semi-finals on Friday.
In another round of 16 tie, India's Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra overcame stiff resistance to beat Canada's Marko Medjugorac and Alicia Cote 3-2 (11-8, 11-13, 10-12, 11-8, 11-4).
Sathiyan and Manika will now take on Singaporeans Xue Jie Pang and Yihan Zhou in the quarter-finals.
The third Indian pair of Sanil Shankar Shetty and Madhurika Patkar sailed into the quarters with an easy 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-6) win over Mauritius duo of Rhikesh Taucoory and Elodie Ho Wan Kau.
In the quarters, the Indian duo will be up against English pair of Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho on Friday.
(Medals Tally)12:37 IST: WRESTLING: Indian wrestler Babita Kumari is in action against Canada's Diana Weicker in Women's 53kg Nordic Gold medal match10:23 IST: SHOOTING: Tejaswini Sawant wins silver in women's 50m Rifle Prone Finals10:13 IST: SHOOTING: Tejaswini Sawant in 2nd position, Anjum Moudgil 18th in Women's 50m Rifle Prone Finals09:55 IST: BADMINTON: Kidambi Srikanth beats Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne 21-10, 21-10 to enter Men's Singles quarter-finals09:53 IST: BADMINTON: PV Sindhu beats Australia's Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen 21-15, 21-9 to enter Women's Singles quarter-final09:41 IST: SHOOTING: After Series 1, Tejaswini Sawant is at number 10 and Anjum Moudgil at 14 in Women's 50m Rifle Prone Finals09:38 IST: SHOOTING: The Women's 50m Rifle Prone Finals featuring India's Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant is underway09:34 IST: BADMINTON: PV Sindhu wins first game 21-15 against Australia's Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen in Women's Singles Round of 16 match09:22 IST: BADMINTON: India's PV Sindhu is in action against Australia's Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen Women's Singles Round of 16 match09:21 IST: BADMINTON: India's Kidambi Srikanth is in action against Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne in Men's Singles Round of 16 match09:18 IST: BADMINTON: HS Prannoy beats Australia's Anthony Joe 21-18, 21-11 in Men's Singles Round of 16 match08:57 IST: TABLE TENNIS: Madhurika Patkar crashes out of women's singles event after 4-2 defeat to England's Kelly Sibley08:55 IST: TABLE TENNIS: Manika Batra in quarters after 4-1 win against Australia's Tracy Feng08:50 IST: BADMINTON: India's HS Prannoy is in action against Australia's Anthony Joe in Men's Singles Round of 16 match08:18 IST: TABLE TENNIS: India's Sanil Shetty and Madurika Patkar also enter mixed doubles quarterfinal beating Rhikesh Taucoory and Elodie Ho Wan Kau of Mauritius 11-4, 11-5, 11-608:16 IST: SHOOTING: The Women's 50m Rifle Prone Finals featuring India's Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant is at 9:30 AM (IST)08:02 IST: WRESTLING: GOLD MEDAL MATCHES:Babita Kumari vs Diana Weicker (53kg)Rahul Aware vs Steven Takahasi (57kg)Sushil Kumar vs Johannes Botha (74kg)Kiran vs Katouskia Pariadhaven (76kg)07:55 IST: BADMINTON: N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Chopra win their Round of 16 mixed-doubles match 21-19, 21-13 to enter the quarterfinals07:50 IST: WRESTLING: Sushil Kumar to face South Africa's Johannes Botha in Men's Freestyle 74 kg final07:41 IST: WRESTLING: Rahul Aware beats Pakistan's Muhammad Bilal to enter Men's Freestyle 57kg Final07:38 IST: WRESTLING: Sushil Kumar enters Men's Freestyle 74 kg final after beating Australia's Connon Evans07:33 IST: WRESTLING: Sushil Kumar in action against Australia's Connon Evans in Men's Freestyle 74 kg semi-finals07:31 IST: WRESTLING: Rahul Aware is in action against Pakistan's Muhammad Bilal in Men's Freestyle 57 kg semi-finals07:30 IST: WRESTLING: Sushil Kumar will face Australia's Connon Evans in Men's Freestyle 74 kg semi-finals07:28 IST: WRESTLING: Rahul Aware will face Pakistan's Muhammad Bilal in Men's Freestyle 57 kg semi-finals07:22 IST: WRESTLING: Sushil Kumar beats Pakistan's Muhammad Asad Butt to enter the Men's Freestyle 74 kg semi-finals07:18 IST: WRESTLING: India's Rahul Aware beats Australia's Thomas Cicchini in Men's Freestyle 57 kg 1/4 Final07:05 IST: WRESTLING: India's Rahul Aware is in action against Australia's Thomas Cicchini in Men's Freestyle 57 kg 1/4 Final07:02 IST: TABLE TENNIS: Sharath Kamal/Mouma Das enter quarter-finals of Mixed Doubles beating England's David McBeth/Kelly Sibley 11-5, 11-9, 11-907:01 IST: WRESTLING: Men's Freestyle 74 kg- Sushil Kumar moves to quarter-finals beating Canada's Jevon Balfour.
He will face Pakistan's Muhammad Asad Butt for a place in the semis07:00 IST: SHOOTING: 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men's Qualification - Good start by Neeraj Kumar and Anish Bhanwala - both are placed 1st and 3rd respectively after Stage 1Babita Kumari vs Bose Samuel (Nigeria): Women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic;Rahul Aware vs George Ramm (England): Men's Freestyle 58kg Quarter-finals;Sushil Kumar vs Jevon Balfour (Canada): Men's Freestyle 78kg Quarter-final;Babita Kumari vs Deepika Dilhani (Sri Lanka): Women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic;Sushil Kumar vs Mohammad Asad Butt (Pakistan): Men's Freestyle 74kg Semi-final;Rahul Aware vs Muhammad Bilal (Pakistan): Men's Freestyle 57kg Semi-final;Babita Kumari vs Carissa Holland (Australia): Women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic;Kiran vs Blessing Onyebuchi (Nigeria): Women's Freestyle 76kg Semi-final;Sushil Kumar vs Connor Evans (Australia): Men's Freestyle 74kg Semi-final;Babita Kumari vs Diana Weicker (Canada): Women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic FINAL;Men's Freestyle 57kg Bronze;Men's Freestyle 57kg FINAL;Women's Freestyle 76kg Bronze;Women's Freestyle 76kg FINAL;Men's Freestyle 74kg Bronze;Men's Freestyle 74kg FINALOn the badminton court, the stars of the mixed team's gold medal winning campaign began their singles run and with easy opponents in opening rounds and the likes of P V Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth hardly took less than 20 minutes each to move into the pre-quarters.
Most of the table tennis and squash players made their way into pre-quarters of their respective individual and doubles events.
In squash, the spotlight is on defending gold medallists Joshna Chinnappa and Dipika Pallikal, who won their opening match.
There was disappointment in the athletics arena where high jump hope Tejaswin Shankar ended up sixth after fouling all his attempts at 2.27m even though his personal best stands at 2.28m.
It's the first time I am experiencing something like this.
I still have a lot of big competitions coming up this year.
The biggest positive is that I could hold my nerve against these big competitors.
I realised they are people like me, they are not gods, Shankar said.
Also finishing sixth was Hima Das, but in the 400m women's race.
She could, however, take solace from the fact that she achieved a personal best of 51.32 sec.