New Delhi: In what turned out to be another big harvest, India on Friday culled an impressive tally of 14 medals, including six gold and a rare women's athletics bronze in track events, to remain well on course in their aim to eventually finish second at the Commonwealth Games.
To add lustre to the gold, the country bagged five silver and three bronze medals too, leading them to an overall five-day medal heist of 20 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze medals.
Gold medals were won by shooters (3), woman wrestlers (2) and the women's recurve archery team to help India end the day glued firmly in second place behind Australia whose haul read a seemingly unassailable 47-24-27.
India were also just two behind their second-best tally of gold in the Games history, 22 four years ago at Melbourne.
The haul is also ten short of equalling their best of 30 at Manchester in 2002 when each class of weightlifting awarded three gold medals, a practice that has been discontinued since then.
England were breathing down the host nation's neck with 18 gold under their belt. They have also won 35 silver and 17 bronze. Canada, with 14 gold, 5 silver and 20 bronze were in fourth spot.
The race for finishing No. 2 in the Games has effectively become a three-horse race between India, England and Canada.
World rifle shooting champion Gagan Narang plucked his third gold medal at the Dr Karni Singh archery range by winning the 50m 3-position pairs event while pistol experts Vijay Kumar and Omkar Singh became the champions in 25m rapid fire and 10m air pistol events respectively.
Not to be outdone by the men, the country's women competitors chipped in with their share of the yellow metal with the recurve team of Dola Banerjee, Bombayala Devi and Deepika Kumari opened the gold medal account at the archery range.
Later Women grapplers Alka Tomar (59kg freestyle) and Anita (67 kg freestyle) fought their way gold medals in grand style and stole some of the limelight away from the all-conquering shooters.
Long distance runner Kavita Raut also made history by becoming the first athlete to bag a medal, bronze, in women's track events in the Games history when she finished third behind Kenya's Grace Kwamboka Momanti and Doris Changeywo, clocking 33:05.28 in the 10,000m.
It was also the country's tenth medal in track and field events since 1958 when 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh bagged India's lone gold medal at the Cardiff Games.
The day began with shooting star Gagan Narang claiming his third gold medal, with partner Imran Hasan Khan by winning the men's 50m rifle 3-position pairs event with Imran Hasan Khan and pistol shooter Vijay Kumar claimed the 25m rapid fire individual gold.
Late in the day Omkar Singh clinched the 10m air postol individual title, the tenth gold garnered by India from the Dr Karni Singh range, after women archers and grapplers got into the gold-winning act.
The women's recurve team of Dola Banerjee, Bombayala Devi and Deepika Kumari opened the gold medal account at the archery range before women wrestlers Tomar and Anita helped keep India ahead of the fast-catching England with a double gold strike.
Seasoned trap shooting pair Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Mansher Singh got a silver in pairs trap event, pistol expert Vijay Kumar stood second in the 25m Rapid Fire event, and grappler Babita Kumari won another silver in the women's 51kg category.
India also won silver in the team event of women's table tennis and badminton and Ashish Kumar (artistic gymastics).
Bronze standards were attained by rifle shooter Gurpreet Singh, in the 25m individual competition, men's archery trio of Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Tarundeep Rai in the recurve competition and woman athlete Kavita Raut.
Rifle shooting ace Gagan Narang began India's gold quest by snapping up his third gold medal, and second in pairs, by winning the men's pairs 50m rifle 3-position event with Imran Hasan.
Narang, who had won the men's 10m air rifle pairs and individual gold medals going into Friday's competition, also set two Games records - a combined total of 2325 out of which his own contribution of 1167 was also a new championship mark.
The pair's shooting gold was the country's 16th after the trio of women archers fetched the country the first of the day.
Alka Tomar and youngster Anita won gold medals in their respective 59 kg and 67 kg freestyle categories to add to the maiden gold won by Geeta on Thursday.
While Alka outclassed Athens Olympic silver and Beijing Games bronze medallist Tonya Verbeek of Canada, Anita beat Megan Budyens of Canada winning the first two rounds on points. Anita won 4-0.
India got another medal courtesy Babita Kumari who lost her 51kg freestyle bout against Ifeoma Christi Nwoye of Nigeria by 4-6 margin. India thus finished with six medals, 3 gold, two silver and a bronze.
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