GLASGOW, July 29 (PTI): Unheralded Harpreet Singh clinched silver while the seasoned Manavjit Sandhu claimed a bronze as Indian shooters continued to make an impact by adding two more medals to India�s collection on the sixth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here today.
While Harpreet and Manavjit stole the limelight with their medal winning feats, Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar turned out to be a disappointment by making a shock exit in the men�s 25 m rapid fire pistol event.
Harpreet survived two rounds of nerve-wrecking shoot-off and brushed aside a penalty point docked on him to claim silver in the men�s 25m rapid fire pistol event on a day when the Indian grapplers also assured themselves of at least three silver medals.
The 33-year-old Harpreet from Haryana, who topped the qualification round, hit 21 times on the target in the six-shooter final which had eight rounds of five shots each.
Harpreet had won two gold in 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi � 25m center fire pistol singles and 25m center fire pistol pairs events.
With the addition of two more medals, India�s overall medals tally swelled to 28 with seven gold, 13 silver and eight bronze so far but they slipped to seventh position in the medal�s standing.
Australia maintained their position on top of the table with 89 medals, which includes 31 gold, 25 silver and 33 bronze medals.
They are followed by England (27-24-24), hosts Scotland (13-8-12), Canada (10-4-12), South Africa (9-7-8) and New Zealand (8-8-11).
Manavjit bagged a bronze in the men�s trap event as shooters continued to do the bulk of the medal shopping at the Games with a tally of 13.
Manavjit finished third in the semifinals after hitting 13 of the 15 targets. He then beat Michael Diamond of Australia in the bronze medal match.
The other Indian in the fray, Mansher Singh was sixth and last in the semifinals as he hit just 11 of the 15 targets.
The strong Indian contingent faced a heart-breaking moment when Olympic silver medallist marksman Vijay Kumar made a shock exit in the qualification round of the men�s 25m rapid fire pistol event.
Vijay shot a total of 555 points in the two qualification rounds to finish seventh and miss out on a place in the final round. The top six in the qualification round qualify for the final round.
There was much cheer for India from the wrestling venue where Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, Rajeev Tomar and Amit Kumar ensured three silver medals as they entered the finals of their respective weight categories..
Vinesh became the fourth Indian grappler to make the gold-medal round in the Women�s 48kg freestyle at the SECC Hall.
Both Sushil and Amit trumped three strong grapplers one after another within a matter of just one-and-a-half-hour in the men�s 74kg and 57kg freestyle events, respectively, to make the gold-medal round, while Tomar had two easy rounds before he made the finals of the men�s 125kg category.
Vinesh also overpowered two opponents en-route to the finals.
All the final bouts are to be held later in the day.
31-year-old Sushil proved his mettle as he comfortably won the round of 16, followed by his quarterfinal bout by the virtue of Great Superiority, which means winning by a difference of 10 points.
In the semifinals, Sushil beat Nigeria�s Melvin Bibo to make the finals, where he will take on Qamar Abbas of Pakistan.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medallist and a silver medal winner at the 2012 London Games thrashed Australia�s Jayden Lawrence 11-0 in the round of 16, before blanking Kushan Sandrage of Sri Lanka 10-0 in the last eight-stage of the competition.
Sushil, however, faced some threat in the semifinals with his Nigerian opponent managing to grab a few points. But in the end, it was the Indian who turned out to be far superior with a 8-4 victory.
