C'wealth: More gold in India's bag

Melbourne: India's Gagan Narang won the gold and Abhinav Bindra took the silver in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions of the 18th Commonwealth Games shooting event on Friday.

Narang fired 1261.4 (1163+98.4) points to set a new Games record erasing the old mark of 1251.5 of compatriot Charan Singh, who achieved the feat at the previous edition of the Games at Manchester, 2002.

Bindra scored 1248.6 (1151+97.6) points to come second. Australia's Ben Burge took the bronze with a overall score of 1238.2 (1150+88.2) points.

However, Samresh Jung's dream of winning seven gold was dashed as he finished third in the men's 25-metre centrefire pistol event.

Jung had a nightmarish shootout to decide the winners after a three-way tie with On Shaw Ming of Singapore and Gregory Yelavich of New Zealand on 578 points.

The 35-year old shot a poor 47 in the tie-breaker to settle for the bronze while Ming came up with 144 and Yelavich 141 for gold and silver respectively.

Jung still has one more event - 25m standard pistol -- to go.

In men's hockey, India finished sixth after losing to New Zealand 1-2. Sandeep Singh gave India the lead with a penalty corner conversion in the first-half.

Bevan Harry then produced the equaliser for the Kiwis in the second half before slotting home the winner in extra time.

In the men's singles badminton event, Chetan Anand edged past Hendra Wijaya of Singapore to enter the semifinals.

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Anand is India's sole medal hope in the singles as national Champions Anup Sridhar and Aparna Popat bowed out after losing their men's and women's quarterfinal matches respectively at the Melbourne Exhibition centre on Friday.

Fourth seed Anand notched up a hard-fought 21-16 13-21 21-11 win in the quarterfinals to reach the last four. Anand will now take on Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia for a place in the finals later on Friday.

Aparna, who dumped defending champion Li Li of Singapore on Thursday, ran out of steam to go down 21-13 21-14 against Elizabeth Cann of Jersey.

Anup Sridhar lost 21-15 21-18 to top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the CRPF has announced cash rewards of Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 75,000 to gold and silver medal winners respectively of the 18th Commonwealth Games.

Four CRPF athletes -- veteran weightlifter Kunjarani Devi, Geeta Rani and Laishram Monica Devi and athlete Seema Antil -- have so far won two gold and two silver medals at the Games in Melbourne.

While Kunjurani Devi and Geeta Rani bagged gold medals in 48 kg and +75 kg categories of weightlifting while Monica Devi and Anil got silver in 69 kg weightlifting and discus throw respectively.

Announcing the reward, CRPF Director General J K Sinha said: "Our players have brought laurel and glory to the country and the force. Our next target is 2010 Commonwealth Games and we would provide every possible facility to achieve the goal."