Asia

While You Were Asleep: Boxer Sagar storms into quarters, Ghosal enters last eight in squash, India thump Ghana in hockey, Mayuri finishes 18th in cycling

August 1, 2022
Henry Club

Sagar Ahalwat, who is making his India debut, put up a power-packed performance to win by 5-0 verdict against Cameroon’s Maxime Yegnong Njieyo at the Commonwealth Games.

The 20-year-old pugilist from Dhandlan village in Haryana’s Jhajjar is donning the Indian colours for the first time. Sagar began training at the Jhajjar’s Jawahar Bagh Stadium in 2017. He would travel a 20km distance on his bike to the stadium; however his training was irregular as he had to help his father in the farm sometime.

In the Commonwealth Games trials, Sagar had defeated his idol Satish Kumar and then went on to beat national champion Narender to book his ticket for Birmingham.

Meanwhile, another debutant Sumit Kundu (75kg) made round of 16 exits. Sumit led the bout after the first round but the Indian’s inexperience did him in the final two rounds.

Ghosal stays on course

The world number 15 Saurav Ghosal from India blanked Canadian David Baillargeon, ranked 62, 3-0 to reach the last eight stage. Ghosal won the match by 11-6, 11-2, 11-6.

Ghosal was hardly troubled in the first two games. In the third, the Canadian led 3-0 before the Indian levelled it to 3-3. After that, he took the decisive lead.

Earlier on Sunday, Joshna outwitted New Zealand’s Kaitlyn Watts 3-1 to progress to the women’s singles quarterfinals. The 18-time national champion kept her calm to recover from a mid-game slump to prevail 11-8 9-11 11-4 11-6 against Watts to set up a last-eight clash with Canada’s Hollie Naughton.

India is eyeing its first squash medal in the Commonwealth Games.

Harmanpreet scores hat-trick in India’s win

Vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh (11th, 35th, 53rd) scored a hat-trick, while Abhishek (2nd minute), Shamsher Singh (14th), Akashdeep Singh (20th), Jugraj Singh (22nd, 43rd), Nilakanta Sharma (38th), Varun Kumar (39th) and Mandeep Singh (48th) as India thumped Ghana 11-0 to start their campaign in style at the Commonwealth Games.

India’s Harmanpreet Singh celebrates after scoring a hat-trick. (Hockey India)

It was a thoroughly dominating performance from the Indians as they hardly allowed Ghana into their D. The Indians were relentless in their attacks and completely controlled the proceedings from start to finish.

The Indians played to their strength and scored five in the first half before pumping in four and two goals in the last two quarters.

Ghana had their occasional chances in the form of five penalty corners but the Indian defence was up to its best to deny its opponents.

India will next play England on Monday.

Cyclist Mayuri Lute finishes 18th

Indian cyclists has continued to struggle in Birmingham with Mayuri Lute finishing way back in the 18th position in the women’s 500m time trial final.

Lute clocked 36.868s to end near the bottom of the 20-cyclist final. Australia’s Kristina Clonan took the gold in 33.234s.

Another Indian, Vishavjeet Singh did not finish his men’s 15km scratch race final. Earlier in the day, top Indian cyclist Ronaldo Laitonjam lost to Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s sprint event.

The 20-year-old Indian finished 0.162s behind Glaetzer, clocking 10.011s over the 200m distance.