Rising high! Tejaswini Sawant wins silver in 50m rifle prone

Gold Coast, April 12: India is soaring high and grabbing each medal coming its way. Another medal in India’s coat of glory is by Tejaswini Sawant who won a silver medal in the women's 50m Rifle Prone after shooting a total of 618.9 points at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

Competing in her third Commonwealth Games, Tejaswini added a sixth medal to her bag after having previously won gold in 10m air rifle and 10m air rifle (pairs) in Melbourne in 2006 and a silver and bronze in 50m rifle prone and 50m rifle prone (pairs) respectively in New Delhi in 2010.

 

With this win, she further became the first Indian woman to medal twice in this event at the Commonwealth Games. The only other Indian to win a medal in this event was Roopa Unnikrishnan, who won Gold in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.

The medals' tally is set to soar as Sushil Kumar and two other wrestlers entered final of the discipline on Thursday.

Sushi (74kg), the defending champion, scored easy victories over Canada's Jevon Balfour and Pakistan's Muhammad Asad Butt by technical superiority before scoring a victory by fall over Australia's Connor Evans.

Babita Phogat (53kg) also made the final and set up a clash with Canada's Diana Weicker after notching up wins over Nigeria's Samuel Bose, Sri Lanka's Deepika Dilhani, and Australia's Carissa Holland.

Rahul Aware (57kg) also had a smooth passage into the final with comprehensive wins over England's George Ramm, Australia's Thomas Cicchini and Pakistan's Muhammad Bilal. He will face Canada's Steven Takahashi in the final.

Kiran (76kg) will compete for the bronze medal after an early loss to nigeria's Blessing Onyebuchi.

This was India's 12th medal in shooting. India continues to remain third in the medals' tally with 25 medals including 12 Gold, 5 Silver and 8 Bronze.