All six Indian wrestlers who took to the mat at the Victoria Arena on the first day of the competition at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games won medals with Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and 23-year-old Deepak Punia striking gold.
Anshu Malik added a silver as Mohit Grewal and Divya Kakran also bagged a bronze each to take India's tally at the Games to 26 medals (9 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze). India now sits at the fifth position in the medals' tally in Birmingham.
In the men's freestyle 65kg competition, Punia beat Canada's Lachlan McNeil 9-2 in the final to win his third CWG medal.
आपसभीकेसमर्थनकेलिएधन्यवाद।🥇🙏🏽🇮🇳#proud #moment pic.twitter.com/yvW1MLP69y
— Bajrang Punia 🇮🇳(@BajrangPunia) August 6, 2022
Young gun Punia defeated Pakistan's Muhammad Imam in the 86 kg even to win his first Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Sakshi Malik, who had won a bronze at the Rio Olympics, also claimed her first CWG gold medal after beating Canada's Ana Godinez Gonzalez by fall.
Feeling proud of the spectacular sporting performance by our very own Deepak Punia! He is India’s pride and has given India many laurels. Every Indian is elated by his winning the Gold medal. Best wishes to him for all upcoming endeavours. pic.twitter.com/tk9NuAIN1s
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2022
Saturday could see more Indian wrestlers striking gold as Tokyo Olympics Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Vinesh Phogat will be seen in action along with Pooja Gehlot, Naveen, Pooja Sihag and Deepak Nehra.
Meanwhile, Indian shuttlers have also kept the hopes of winning more medals alive as Olympic medallist P V Sindhu entered the women's singles quarterfinals after a 21-10, 21-9 win against Uganda's Husina Kobugabe.
K Srikanth and Lakshya Sen too advanced to the quarterfinals after recording comfortable wins in their respective encounters.
In cricket, the Indian women's cricket team will take on the hosts England in the semi-finals while the men's hockey team will clash with South Africa in the semifinals.
