PaRCha – JNU – AISA material – 2010 ID-26058
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Elora Sen .
New Delhi: Ravi Kumar Katulu is here to prove that weightlifting can be done successfully without being dragged into doping and tak-ing recourse to cheating. .
Indian weightlifting had been dogged so badly by doping problems that there were moments in the run up to the XIX Commonwealth Games that seemed that the current crop of lifters may not even be able to partici-pate with the Weighlifting Federeation of India strug-gling to pay the fine to the world body . .
However, with that prob-lem sorted in time, the lifters have been able to prove their mettle. And Ravi Kumar, who won the gold in the 69 kg category, is all smiles. We will prove that a Games without dope is possible. .
Asked if he was under any pressure on Wednesday, he said: There was pressure of expectations. We as a team had promised the nation that we will win gold medals here. But after we missed in the 62 kg, it became more of a challenge. .
On Wednesday, Ravi Kumar created a new Commonwealth Games record with a total lift of 321kgs. He finished way bet-ter than Sri Lankas Chinthana Vidanage who took silver with 308 kgs. Mohd Hafifi Mansor of Malaysia bagged bronze with a total lift of 306 kgs. .
However, Ravi Kumar is not resting on his laurels. .
The Asian Games is in November, The competi-.
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show there, he added. .
Ravi Kumar iterated that the support from the govern-ment and the WFI was great and the lifters were under no stress as far as participation was concerned. .
We had regular camps .
and we were told to just fine and we will be able to compete. Even his wife came to the national camp and said if needed they will take loans or sell their house and see to it that we get to per-form, he said .
D D Sharma, the coach, said: None of the lifters from the present crop had tested positive. They are clean athletes. We have been able to prove that doping is not needed. Proper food sup-plements and hard work, thats what pays off. Ravi Kumar, who was initially a body builder, started weight -lifting in 2003 and joined the SAI, Dhenkanal, in 2005. .
After joining the Army Sports Institue in Pune in 2007, he won the silver medal in the Junior Asian Championship in Jordan. And there has been no .
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Fennell finds a positive story in bathrooms .
Our Special Correspondent .
New Delhi: Comm -onwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell has had a busy time trying to ward off controversies and trying to iron out the glitches at the XIX Commonwealth Games here. But clogged bathroom drains? And that too with used condoms? Well the CGF chief seemed pre-pared with a ready answer to that problem, too. Asked about the embar-rassing situation at the Games Village, where it has been reported that used condoms were block-ing toilet drains, he termed it as a positive story. It is good that the athletes are promoting safe sex. This should be a positive story, he quipped. The Games Village houses nearly 7000 athletes and officials. If that is happen-ing, it shows there is use of condoms and I think that is a very positive story, that athletes are being responsible. This issue was controversial some years back but not now. Prom -oting safe sex is a respon-sible thing to do," he said. Incidentally, athletes received free condoms at every Games Village since Barcelona in 1992 to help raise awareness about AIDS, and in Beijing 2008 a whopping 100,000 con-doms were distributed. However, after the discus-sions the whole day the officials have now compe up with an inexplicable explanation that no such incident has taken place at the Village and the rub-bers seem to have disap-peared into thin air. .
Elora Sen .
New Delhi: On Thursday, even as Indian sportsper-sons kept up their good work, a bronze medal almost overshone all the others. Because that medal came from the most unex-pected sport gymnastics. .
History was created by Ashish Kumar on Thursday, as he got India their first ever medal in the sport after it had been introduced to Commonwealth Games way back in 1978. .
Egged on by a crowd of over 12,000, the 19-year-old Allahabad lad clinched bronze with a score of .
14.475 in the floor exercise final at the Indira Gandhi sports complex here on Thursday. .
Australian national gym-nastic champion claimed gold with a score of 14.675 while Englishman Reiss Beckford bagged silver just edging out Ashish with a score of 14.625. .
I was really nervous since I have never been in such a big final. This is the first medal for India and I am sure this wont be the countrys last, Ashish said. .
Ashish slipped up on the second line of his perform-ance which made that dif-ference between the silver and bronze. .
Indias Russian-born-American coach Vladimir Chertkhov was delighted by Ashishs performance. I had said during the World Championships in October last year that Indian gym-nastics was on the rise, Chertkhov said. .
Haul swells to 34 with 14 gold; women grapplers shine .
Ashish Kumar makes .
history on the floor .
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Indian women wrestlers Chinna Raju Srither belied justified the inclusion of expectations to win silver in their game in the XIX the compound event behind Commonwealth Games, England. winning a medal of each It was a tough encounter hue here on Thursday. and England won 231-229 .
Archers also opened their to win their second archery tally with a silver and a gold of the Games. bronze, taking Indias over-Earlier, the trio of all gold tally to 14, and 34 Gagandeep Kaur, Jhano medals in all. Hansdah and Bheigyabati .
Indian women opened Chanu bagged an unex-pected bronze in the womens compound team event, countrys first archery medal in the Games. .
MEDALS TALLY .
COUNTRY G S B T .
Australia 33 19 18 70 .
India 14 11 9 34 .
England 12 23 12 47 .
Canada 11 2 11 24 .
S Africa 5 5 6 16 .
Nigeria 4 4 5 13 .
Malaysia 3 3 4 10 .
Singapore 2 2 4 8 .
Scotland 1 2 3 6 .
Kenya 1 1 1 3 .
Jamaica 1 1 0 2 .
Nauru 1 0 0 1 .
Uganda 1 0 0 1 .
N Zealand 0 7 3 10 .
Wales 0 5 2 7 .
Cameroon 0 1 1 2 .
Sri Lanka 0 1 1 2 .
St Vincent 0 1 1 2 .
Pakistan 0 1 0 1 .
T&T 0 0 2 2 .
Isle of Man 0 0 2 2 .
Bangladesh 0 0 1 1 .
Cyprus 0 0 1 1 .
Namibia 0 0 1 1 .
N Ireland 0 0 1 1 .
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The hosts defeated Malaysia 223-219 in the bronze play-off at the Yamuna Sports complex here. Canada, who finally got the silver, beat India in the semi-finals 224-217. England won the gold. Archery is also making a comeback to the Games after 28 long years. .
Gagandeep was emo-tional after the podium fin-ish. Its the first archery medal for India in the Games. I am excited to be part of it. .
The Indian archers man-aged a podium finish despite adversities. .
We got the equipment late but it did not affect our performance in the end, Jhano said. .
Wrestler Geeta won the gold in the freestyle 55 kg category, defeating Aus-their account in freestyle tralian Emily Bensted 11-0, wrestling with Geeta win-Nirmala the silver, beating ning the 55kg gold, Nirmala Canadian Carol Huynh 12-0 Devi the 48 kg silver and and Suman the bronze Suman Kundu the 63 kg defeating South Africas bronze. Zumicke Geringer 9-2. .
The Indian mens archery In weightlifting, Sudhir team of Ritul Chatterjee, Kumar won a bronze in the Jignas Chittibomo and 77 kg category. .
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