Australia made a big start at the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 on Monday, the first day of the sporting extravaganza in the Indian capital, with six medals in all, out of which four were gold and two silver. Host India tied for the second position in the medal tally with Canada and England at the end of the first day with four medals each.
While India won two silver and two bronze, Canada clinched one gold and three bronze and England picked up three silver and one bronze medal.
For Australia, the first gold medal came when swimmer Kylie Palmer won the women’s 200-meter freestyle event in 1:57.50. Jazmin Carlin of Wales and Rebecca Adlington of England won silver and bronze, respectively. Australia won two more gold medals in swimming on the first day.
Then came the Australian male gymnasts, who trailed the favorites, England, by 0.65 points and produced a brilliant display on the rings, claiming 2.3 points as well as a fourth gold medal for the country.
India started with a hope for gold, but had to feel satisfied with a silver and a bronze, which were won by Soniya Chanu and Sandhya Rani, respectively, in women’s 48kg weightlifting. The event, which has been a major contributor to India’s medal haul at the Commonwealth Games so far, has been plagued by a dope row recently. The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) had to pay a hefty fine of more than $4 million to the International Weightlifting Federation so that it could participate in the Games.
In the same category, Nigeria’s 17-year-old Augustina Nwaokolo won the gold.
However, in tennis, India put up a good show with all three of the country's singles players claiming easy victories while the celebrity pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza began their quest for gold by getting into the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles.
Paes and Mirza trounced the poor combo of Stavey Nykita Roheman and Alberton Richelieu of St. Lucia 6-1 6-0 in a short match of 39 minutes. The three singles, Rohan Bopanna, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Poojashree Venkatesh, prevailed over their opponents to record first-day victories.
For Canada, the first-ever Commonwealth gold came in the form of men’s 400m freestyle at the hands of Ryan Cochrane, who defeated Australia’s Ryan Napolean and Scottish defending champion Dave Carry, to win the honor.
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