New Delhi: India continued to add to its gold tally on Thursday as the hosts won three more golds on the fourth day of the Commonwealth Games.
However, there was disappointment for the men's hockey team which went down 2-5 to Australia at the Dhyan Chand National stadium.
The day kicked off with a bronze medal win in archery, which was soon followed by another shooting gold.
Indian women won in the compound team event by beating Malaysia in a play-off. The team of Bheigyabati Chanu, Jhano Hansdah and Gagandeep Kaur won 223-219 for a third place finish.
But the first 'golden' news came from the Karni Singh Shooting Range, where the team of Gurpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar won gold in 25m Pistol Pairs, taking India's gold tally to 12 at that point.
Vijay (587) and Gurpreet (575) shot a total of 1162 to win the gold ahead of Malaysia and Australia. They broke the Games record (1134), by a huge margin, also set by India at the Melbourne Games four years back. The record was held also by Vijay and Pemba Tamang.
Later in the day Gurpreet teamed up with Omkar Singh to finish on top of the podium in men's 10 metre air pistol.
Omkar (587) and Gurpreet (576) then totalled 1163 to break the Games record of 1154 set by Indian pair Samresh Jung and Vivek Singh four years back at the Melbourne Games.
Winner of the last World Cup final in Turkey and a world record holder in double trap, Sodhi prevailed in a pulsating three-way shoot-off to clinch silver after England's Steven Walton bagged the gold medal scoring 190 points. The event went into shoot-off after Sodhi, Asher Noria and Isle of Man's Timothy James Kneale were locked at 186 points after the regulation round.
Towards the evening, Indian archers Srither, Jignas and R Chatterji were up against England in the final of the men's Team Compound event.
Looking at their semifinal performance, it seemed England had their hands full. It turned out to be a close encounter but after conceding an early lead, the Indians couldn't stage a real comeback and ended up second on the podium. Nonetheless, it was another silver into India's kitty.
On the badminton courts, India pulled off a splendid 3-0 victory over England to set up a clash with top seed Malaysia in the final of the mixed team event.
Egged on by a packed stadium, India avenged the 2-3 loss to England at the same stage in the Melbourne Games four years ago.
The Indian team were given the right start by mixed doubles pair Jwala Gutta and V.Diju who defeated Nathan Robertson and Jeny Wallwork 21-17, 21-15.
Parupalli Kashyap then upset Rajiv Ouseph 21-13, 21-17 in 41 minutes. Saina Nehwal clinched the issue with a 21-18, 21-11 win over Liz Cann.
Tennis registered the biggest upset of the day as second seeds Leander Paes and Sania Mirza crashed out of the mixed doubles quarterfinals. However, it was a happy day for India in the singles with both Somdev Devvarman and Sania romping into the semifinals with straight set victories.
Rushmi Chakravarthi, who had created a flutter a day before with a sensational win over third seed Katie O' Brien of England, could not repeat her good performance and went down 5-7, 4-6 to sixth seeded Australian Olivia Rogowska.
However, it was a successful outing for India in men's doubles with Somdev and Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi moving into the semi-finals.
In women's doubles, Poojashree Venkatesha and Nirupama Sanjeev shocked second seeds Sarah Borwell and Anna Smith 7-5, 6-4 to reach the semifinals where they now square up against Australian Jessica Moore and Rogowska.
The Indian women's table tennis team on Thursday reached their maiden final at the Commonwealth Games blanking fancied England in the semi-finals and the men's team entered the last four beating South Africa in the quarter-finals.
Shamini Kumaresan, who was instrumental in India's victory against Australia Wednesday, was again seen in great form as she came from one game down to beat Kelly Sibley 7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 in the first singles.
Mouma Das recovered from Wednesday's loss against Aussie Fang Jian Lay and defeated Joanna Parker 11-3, 11-8, 11-7.
Mouma, the highest ranked Indian on International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) circuit at 211, did not let defender Joanna settle down one bit and negated her spin by hitting smashes at ease.
Poulomi Ghatak comfortably beat another English defender Hannah Hicks and closed out the match.
In swimming, India's hopes for bagging more medals received further boost on Thursday when Sandeep Sejwal advanced to the semifinals with an impressive fourth place finish even as six other Indians made the cut in their respective events.
A day after Prasanta Karmakar made history by bagging bronze, the first medal in swimming, Kiran Tak and Anjani Patel kept the medal hopes alive as the duo progressed into the final in para sport category.
India's biggest hope Virdhawal Khade swam 55.17 in men's 100m butterfly for a lowly 13th place that was enough for him to take him to semis.
In the weightlifting arena, Sudhir Kumar picked up a bronze medal in men's 77-kg category despite not being in the reckoning for any medal in the beginning at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium sports complex.
Wrestler Geeta won the gold in the freestyle 55 kg category, defeating Australian Emily Bensted 11-0.
It was India's first gold in women's wrestling, which is debuting at the Games. Nigerian Lovina Odohi Edward overcame Jayne Clason of Scotland 8-0 to win the bronze.
Nirmala Devi won the silver in the women's freestyle 48 kg wrestling. She lost to Canadian Carol Huynh 3-7 in the final.
The bronze went to Nigeria's Odunayo Adekuroye, who overpowered South African grappler Brumilda Leeuw 14-0.
Suman Kundu got India its third medal from the competition winning her bronze medal play-off in the 63 kg category.
In gymnastics, India created history by bagging its first Commonwealth medal with Ashish Kumar clinching the bronze medal in floor exercise category in the men's event.
This is country's first medal since the beginning of Commonwealth Games in 1930 in Gymnastics, a sport in which India lagged way behind till today.
India's medals tally now stands at 14 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze.
(With inputs from agencies)
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