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| March 17, 2006 | Friday | Safar 16, 1427 |
Commonwealth Games: Asia displays credentials with two gold
MELBOURNE, March 16: Asia scooped two weightlifting gold medals on the opening day of the Commonwealth Games Thursday courtesy of India’s Kunjarani Devi and Malaysia’s Mohd Faizal Baharom.
To put icing on the cake, India’s Vicky Batta took a silver and Malaysia’s Matin Guntali a bronze, also in weightlifting.
Malaysia and Singapore meanwhile showed their credentials in badminton and table tennis, while Malaysian and Singaporean swimmers made finals in the pool.
The veteran Devi, 38, won the women’s 48kg title, outlifting Marilou Dozois-Prevost of Canada and Australia’s Erika Yamasaki to finish with a Games record combined score of 166kg.
It helped restore some credibility to an Indian team dogged by doping scandals.
In the lead up to Melbourne Shailaja Pujari, the winner in the women’s 75kg division at the last Games in 2002, tested positive for stanozol, an anabolic steroid, and was thrown off the team.
“The gold medal has given the Indian contingent a great start and the fact that we won the first gold medal of the 18th Commonwealth Games is a great booster for us,” said Suresh Kalmadi, president of Indian Olympic Association.
Malaysia also tasted success with Mohd Faizal Baharom winning the men’s 56kg gold medal to maintain his country’s domination of the event at this level.
Four years ago in Manchester, it was compatriot Aminul Hamizan Ibrahim who swept to three golds but his chances of defending the title here were shattered after he failed a drugs test.
Instead, the 24-year-old Baharom, a bronze medal winner in 2002, seized his opportunity with a commanding performance with a snatch of 115kg followed by 140kg in clean and jerk.
Malaysia, along with Singapore, are also in the hunt for medals in the badminton and table tennis, and showed they remain forces to be reckoned with in preliminary round mixed team events.
Singapore crushed a hapless South Africa 5-0 in their badminton group match while Malaysia was equally dominant against Fiji.
Sri Lankan and Indian shuttlers also recorded wins.
Top seed Malaysia won nine badminton medals in Manchester and warned that its players are in fine form.
“I believe the players are generally in good form and the team spirit is also high,” said badminton team manager Ahmad Idris.
Hot favourites Singapore, a nation of only 4.2 million people who took home three of the eight gold medals on offer in Manchester, also fired a warning in the table tennis.
Top seeds in the men’s team event, Singapore’s Clarence Lee, Lee Han-ting and Yang Zi all won their matches against Fijian opposition in straight sets.
Malaysia and Pakistan also notched victories.
Malaysia and Singapore have outside chances of making the podium in the pool after Li Tao qualified for the finals of the women’s 50m butterfly and Malaysia’s Keng Liat Lim made the final of the men’s 50m backstroke.
But the news for tiny Brunei was less encouraging with their lawn bowlers slipping up in early preliminary matches. Their triples team narrowly went down to equally small Guernsey.
The oil-rich sultanate, which has never won a Commonwealth medal since attending their first Games in Auckland in 1990, has a team of 11 here, all in the bowls.
Sri Lanka went home empty handed from Manchester and appear to be headed the same way here with defeats in squash Thursday.—AFP
Table
The medals table after Thursday’s competition
Pls tabulate under: Gold Silver Bronze Total
Australia 3 4 4 11
Scotland 2 0 1 3
England 1 3 2 6
India 1 1 0 2
Malaysia 1 0 1 2
New Zealand 1 0 0 1
South Africa 1 0 0 1
Canada 0 2 1 3
Wales 0 0 1 1
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