Venkat Rahul Ragala adds fourth gold to India's weightlifting haul as shuttlers, paddlers advance in Commonwealth Games 2018

Nowhere close to complete fitness and without a fulltime physio to care for their niggles, Indian weightlifters remained leaps ahead of their Commonwealth Games competitors, taking their gold medal tally to four through Sathish Sivalingam (77kg) and Venkat Rahul Ragala (85kg) here today.

Gold medalist Indian weightlifter Venkat Rahul Ragala competes at men's 85 kg Weightlifting category during the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast. | PTI 

Rahulhad to wait right till the end owing to close competition from eventual silver-medallist Samoa's Don Opeloge. | PTI

Defending champion Sathish Sivalingam (77kg) claimed India's third gold medal in the Commonwealth Games today, coming out tops comfortably despite having given up podium hopes after his injured thighs made even routine things like sitting painful.| PTI

The 25-year-old Indian lifted a total 317kg (144kg+173kg) and was so ahead of the competition that he forfeited his final clean and jerk lift. | PTI

Manika Batra started off the proceedings with a comfortable win over Ying Ho in the opening match as India blanked Malaysia 3-0 in the quarter-finals of the women's team table tennis. | PTI. (Photo | AP)

All the excitement came down to the last seven seconds as the Indian hockey team's perennial problem of conceding late goals left them with a disappointing 2-2 draw against a sloppy Pakistan in its Commonwealth Games opener here today. | PTI

India conceded a goal in the final seven seconds after leading 2-1 in the match, giving Pakistan more reason to celebrate despite the shared honours. | PTI

Dilpreet Singh (13th minute), Harmanpreet Singh (19th minute) put India ahead before Mohammed Irfan Junior (38th minute) and Mubashar Ali (59th minute) drew parity and helped their team claim the moral victory. | PTI

Star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth led from the front as India thrashed Mauritius 3-0 to advance to the semifinals of badminton mixed team event. Srikanth took just 29 minute to beat Georges Julien Paul 21-12 21-14 in the men's singles. | PTI

The men's doubles duo of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty hardly broke a sweat in their 21-12 21-3 win over Aatish Lubah and Christopher Jean Paul in the first match before Ashwini Pannappa and N Sikki Reddy chalked out an easy 21-8 21-7 victory over Aurelie Marie Elisa and Nicki Chan-Lam in the women's doubles.| PTI