New Delhi: Gagan 'goldfinger' Narang shot his fourth straight gold medal at the ongoing Commonwealth Games on Saturday as India and England got into a see-saw battle over the second place in the medals tally.
Gagan shot gold in the Individual 50m Air Rifle 3 Position event to give India her 22nd gold and the 12th from shooting. India had won 16 gold in shooting at the 2006 Melbourne Games.
Other shooters too continued the gold rush for India from the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. Harpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar shot 573 and 586 respectively in the men's 25-metre centre-fire pistol to win gold with a total of 1159 points.
The women shooters were not to be left behind as Suma Shiroor and Kavita Yadav teamed up in the 10m air rifle pairs a little later but could win only a bronze.
Earlier in the day, India secured an unexpected bronze in the men's 20km walk to start day six of their Commonwealth Games' campaign when Harminder Singh finished third. It was soon followed by another bronze from the men's table tennis team that beat Nigeria in the third-place play-off.
The 26-year-old Harminder finished his 20km walk a minute and 10 seconds behind the Australian duo of Luke Adams and Jarred Tallent. Adams won the silver, while Tallent - a double-Olympic walk medallist in the Beijing Olympic Games - clinched the gold medal with a new Games record' of 1:22:18.
A little later, the Indian men's table tennis team of Achanta Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalraj and Abhishek Ravichandran salvaged a bronze after blunting the Nigerian challenge 3-0 in the third-place match.
The hosts had no time to pull themselves up from Friday night's disappointing loss to England but were up to the task against the gritty Nigerians at the Yamuna Sports Complex to give Indian another bronze.
The evening began with the pleasant news of India going past it's gold medal tally of Melbourne 2006, which stood at 22.
The count was taken to 23 gold in New Delhi by wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt who clinched it in his 60kg freestyle category final where he beat Canada's James Mancini. The bronze medal went to England's Sasha Madyarchyk.
The story didn't end there. The wrestlers continued to set the mat on fire and next in line was Narsingh Yadav in the final of 74 kg freestyle category.
The Indian was involved in a close fight with his South African counterpart Richard Brian but hung on to bag India's 24th yellow metal of the Games. The bronze went to Canadian Evan MacDonald.
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