CWG 2018 Day 8: Wrestlers reign supreme, Seema wins 4th Games medal

• Seemia Punia wins fourth Commonwealth Games women's Discus Throw medal.
• Navjeet Dhillon wins bronze in women's Discus Throw. 
• Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins his third straight Commonwealth Games gold medal. 
• Wrestler Rahul Aware wins India its first Gold medal on Thursday, April 12. 
• Wrestler Babita Kumari settles for silver in women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic event. 
• Wreslter Kiran wins bronze in women's Freestyle 76kg event. 
• Veteran shooter Tejaswini Sawant adds to India's medal tally with a silver medal on Tuesday, April 12.   

It was an fruitful day for Indian athletes in Gold Coast as they won a total of seven medals. Wrestler reigned supreme while the first athletics medals for the Asian giants came towards the end of the day in women's Discus. India women's hockey tried hard but lost to Australia 1-0. 

Check out the medal tally (as of 6:15 pm IST, April 12)

Women's hockey semi-final India vs Australia

6:10 pm IST: India lose semi-final 1-0 to Australia. 

India stepped up in the final quarter by pressing high into the Australian half. Captain Rani Rampal nearly got the equaliser towards the end of the match but her shots went wide. 

India will now play the bronze medal match agaisnt England on Saturday, April 14. 

5:58 pm IST: India are pressing now. They forced three penalty corners in the fouth quarter but haven't managed to convert even of them. 

5:52 pm IST: Austalia came up with a wave of attacks in the third quarter and finally managed to break the deadlock through Grace Stewart's goal. 

India have managed only one shot on goal so far. They need to step up in this do-or-die quarter. 

5:40 pm IST: Australia go 1-0 up eight minutes into the third quarter. 

Grace Stewart slots one in past Savita breaking the deadlock at the Gold Coast Hockey Center. More pressure on India, who are struggling to get the ball to the attacking half. 

It's 0-0 at half-time. India's shot-stopper Savita denied Australia the lead early in the second half when she denied a powerful shot from Jane Claxton of Australia. 

India have not been able to take the ball into the attacking half as Australians are putting a lot of pressure by pressing high. 

Australia have stepped up their attack as they have six shots on goal in the first half. However, the Indian women have been resolute in their defence. 

"Very resolute defending by India," says Viren Rasquinha, the former men's hockey captain. 

5:10 pm IST: Discus - Seema Punia wins fourth Commonwealth Games medal. 

The 34-year-old wins silver in the women's discus throw event in Gold Coast with a best throw of 60.41m, which she achieved with her first attempt. First medals coming in for athletics in Gold Coast for India. 

She won her first Commonwealth Games medal, a silver, in the 2006 edition in Melbourne. She then won a bronze medal at home in the 2010 edition and followed it up with a silver medal in the Glasgow edition in 2014. 

India's Navjeet Dhillon managed to win the bronze after leapfrogging New Zealand's Sositina Hakeai (57.16m) with her final throw, in which she recorded 57.43m.

Australia's Dani Stevens wins the gold medal with a Commonwealth Games record-setting throw of 68.26m.

5pm IST: Table Tennis - Mouma Das crashed out!

While Manika Batra reached the women's singles semi-final, compatriot Mouma Das bows out after losing quarter-final to Yu Mengyu of Singapore.

Women's hockey semi-final - India vs Australia

4:56 pm IST: Indian women are displaying good confidence. They are able to move forward with the ball but are unable to get the ball into striking circle. 

4:52 pm IST: Time of the big match. Australia have their first penatly corner in the first quarter. Jodie Kenedy takes the penalty corner but it hits the leg of an Indian defender. One more penalty corner, but Savita dives low to her right to deny the hosts an early lead. 

4:30 pm IST: Table Tennis

Manika Batra reaches the semi-final of women's singles table tennis after beating Singapore's Zhou Yihan 3-1 in the quarter-final. Notably, she had led India to the top step of the podium in the women's team event in Gold Coast. 

4:30 pm IST: Women's Discus Throw 

Veteran athlete Seema Punia is well on her way to her fourth Commonwealth Games medal. 

She is currently in the silver medal position with a best throw of 60.41m, 5.20m behind Australia's Dani Steves. 

Meanwhile, Navejeet Dhillon is currently at the fourth spot with a best throw of 55.61m.

3:30 pm IST: Two major events coming up.

Seema Punia, the 2014 Asian Games champion and the Glasgow Games silver medalist, will be in action in the women's discuss throw, starting 4:10 pm IST.

The women's hockey team will be taking on heavyweights Australia in the semi-final, starting 4:45 pm IST. 

India have won 14 gold medals so far in Gold Coast and are on the third spot, behing Australia and England. 

3:15 pm IST: Badminton

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have reached the quarter-final of men's doubles badminton in Gold Coast. The India duo Aatish Lubah and Christopher Jean Paul of Mauritius 21-8, 21-12 in the R16 match.

3 pm IST: Squash

Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu have been knocked out of the mixed doubles table tennis event in the quarter-final. The Indian duo lost to Joelle King and Paul Coll of New Zealand. 

Meanwhile, Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal defeated Tensi Evans and Peter Creed of Wales in straight games to reach the semi-final of mixed doubles squash in Gold Coast. 

3 pm IST: Badminton 

 Saina Nehwal reaches quarter-final of women's singles after winning her R16 in just 12 minutes.

The London Olympic bronze medalist's opponent Jesssica Li of Isle of Man retired with an injury in the second game after losing the first one 21-4.

Notably, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu and Ruthvika Shivani have all qualified for the last-eight round of singles competitions in Gold Coast.

2:05pm IST: Sushil Kumar wins his third Commonwealth Games gold medal. 

The men's 74kg Freestyle gold medal match lasted just 80 seconds.

Kumar, the two-time Olympic medalist's road to Commonwealth Games 2018 began on a rough note when his supporters were involved in a brawl with rival wrestler Praveen Rana's men during the trails last year. 

The 34-year-old had won all the bouts in New Delhi to clinch the berth. 

Kumar, the two-time Olympic medalist, defeated South Africa's Johannes Botha via technical superiority - without any points scored by the opponent (10-0). 

1:48 pm IST: Legendary Sushil Kumar will be in action in the men's 74kg gold medal match soon. 

The two-time Olympic medalist was at his dominant best in the previous rounds earlier today. Can he do it once again in the gold medal match? 

The defending champion will be up against Johannes Botha of South Africa. 

1:35 pm IST: Table Tennis

Manika Batra and Mouma Das reach women's doubles semi-final.

The India duo defeated Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos 3-1 in the quarter-final earlier today.

Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe also reach the semi-final of women's doubles.

They defeated Alicia Cote and Mo Zhang in the quarter-final 3-0.

Meanwhile, men's doubles pairing of Achanta Sharath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran reach the quarter-final after defeating Sri Lankan pairing of Buwaneka Jayasingha and Imesh Ranasingha 3-0 in R16 match. 

1:31 pm IST: Kiran wins bronze in women's Freestyle 76kg wrestling.

The Haryana Hammers wrestler decimates opponent Katouskia Pariadhaven of Mauritius via fall. The bronze medal match did not even go into the second period.  

What a few minutes this has been for Indian wrestlers at the Gold Coast. 

1:14 pm IST: Wrestler Rahul Aware wins India its 13th Gold in Gold Coast! 

What a stunning performance from Aware in a hard-fought gold medal match. 

The 26-year-old Indian wrestler was at the recieving end of a four-point move from Canada's Steve Takahashi but he managed to go into the break with a two-point lead at 6-4. 

However, Aware came back strong and wrestled aggressively in the second quarter, winning nine points to win the coveted gold medal with a final scoreline of 15-7. 

1:08 pm IST: Rahul Aware leads at the end of a fiercely-fought first quarter.

Aware opened the scoring by clinching two points but Takahashi came back strong with a four-point throw. However, Aware stepped p towards the end of the first quarter by clinching four points. 

1:03 pm IST: Rahul Aware is on the mat for his gold medal match agaisnt Steve Takahashi of Canada. 

1:02 pm IST: Pakistan's Muhammad Bilal, who lost to Rahul in the semi-final, takes the bronze medal after beating England's George Ramm.

12:57 pm IST: Next up is Rahul Aware of India in the men's Freestyle 57kg gold medal match. 

The 26-year-old was highly impressive in the previous rounds. He will be up against another Canadian, Steve Takahashi.

12:45 pm IST: Babita Kumari loses women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic wrestling event, settles for silver medal. 

The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Babita was outclassed by Canada's Diana Weicker 5-2 in a hard-fought final. 

Both the wrestlers started slow but Babita conceded a point after being put on the shot clock for passivity. Weicker was more aggressive in the second period, scoring four points while the Indian managed only two. 

Notably, the 28-year-old had won gold in the 55kg category in 2014 Glasgow Games and a silver medal at home in the 51kg category in Delhi Games.

12:40 pm IST: Babita concedes a point after being put on the shot clock for passivity. It's the end of the first period of the gold medal match. She was penalised for not scoring a point during the 30s-period. 

12:35 pm IST: Babita Kumari is in action in the women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic gold medal match against Canada's Diana Weicker. 

12:25 am IST: TABLE TENNIS - Sathiyan Gnanasekaran reaches men's singles quarter-final after his opponent Segun Toriola of Nigeria retires after losing first game 11-7 in the Round of 16 tie. 

11:50 am IST: Key events, involving Indian athletes, in the evening session of Day 8.

Wrestling gold medal and bronze medal matches

Women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic gold medal match

• Babita Kumari vs Diana Weicker (CAN) - Not before 12:30 pm IST

Men's Freestyle 57kg gold medal match

• Rahul Aware vs Steven Takahashi (CAN) - Not before 1 pm IST

Women's Freestyle 76kg bronze medal match

• Kiran vs Pariadhaven Katouskia (MRI) - Not before 1 pm IST

Men's 74kg Freestyle gold medal match

• Sushil Kumar vs Johannes Botha - Not before 2 pm IST

Women's Hockey semi-final

• India vs Australia - 4:45 pm IST

Women's Discus Throw Final

• Seema Punia - 4:10 pm IST

Badminton

• Women's singles R16
• Saina Nehwal - Not before 2:20 pm IST

• Women's doubles R16
• Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponappa - Not before 3:40 pm IST

Squash

Mixed doubles Quarter-final

• Dipika Pallikal Karthik/Saurav Ghosal vs Tensi Evans/Peter Creed (WAL) - 1:30 pm IST
• Joshna Chinappa/Harinder Pal vs Joelle King/Paul Coll (NZL) - 2:20 pm IST

Table Tennis

Women's Doubles quarter-final

• Manika Batra/Mouma Das vs Tin-Tin Ho/Maria Tsaptsinos (ENG) - 12:45 pm IST
• Sutirtha Mukherjee/Pooja Sahasrabudhe vs Alicia Cote/Mo Zhang - 12:45 pm IST

Women's singles quarter-final

• Manika Batra vs Zhou Yihan (SGP) - 3:30 pm IST
• Mouma Das vs Mengyu Yu (SGP) - 4:15 pm IST

11:30 am IST: India has managed to retain the third spot on the medal table. Sawant's silver was the Asian giants' 25th medal in Gold Coast. Check out the medal table here. 

11: 15 am IST: Table Tennis - Harmeet Desai reaches quarter-finals

India's Harmeet Desai is the latest paddler to reach the men's singles quarter-final. H e defeated Malaysia's Chee Feng Leong 4-1 in the R16 today.

Veteran paddler Achanta Sharath also reached the quarter-final after outclassing Heming Hu of Australia 4-1.

While Mouma Das piped England's tin-Tin Ho 4-3 to reach the women's singles quarter-final, Madhurika Patkar bowed out of the competition earlier today.

Manika Batra reached the women's singles as well as the mixed doubles quarter-final with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.

Madhurika Patkar though reached the quarter-final of mixed doubles along with Shankar Shetty.

10:25 am IST: Tejaswini Sawant wins silver medal in women's 50m Rifle Prone.

The 37-year-old Indian shooter Sawant shot 618.9 points, 2.1 lesser than gold medalist Martina Veloso of Singapore.

Sawant was trialing Veloso, who also won the 10m Air Rilfe even in Gold Coast, throught the final of the non-Olympic event.

However, poor show in the fourth series did not help Sawant's case even as she buckled up and matched veloso in the last two series.

Notably, the veteran Indian shooter had won the silver medal in 50m Rifle Prone at 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. 

Scotland's Seonaid Mcintosh took bronze with a total tally of 618.1.

9:55 am IST: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth ease in quarter-finals at Gold Coast. 

Newly-crowned world number one Srikanth defeated Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka without breaking a sweat 21-10, 21-10 in their R16 encounter. 

The top seed will be in men's singles quarter-final action Friday, April 13. 

Sindhu was at her dominant best against Chen Hsuan-Yu of Australia in the women's singles R16 match 21-15, 21-9. She will also play her last-eight match Friday. 

9:19 am IST: Kidambi Srikanth is now in action against Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne in the men's singles Round of 16 badminton. 

9:15 am IST: BADMINTON - HS Prannoy reaches men's singles quarter-final. 

After winning a hard-fought opening game against Australia's Anthony Joe 21-18, Prannoy buckled up and made light work of his opponent to clinch a straight game win and make the last-eight round of men's singles.

9:10 am IST: SQUASH - Indian mixed doubles teams enter quarter-finals

Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal reach mixed doubles quarter-final.

The Indian duo survived a huge scare agaisnt Malaysia's Aifa Azman and Sanjay Singh as they came back from behind after losing the first game 11-7.

Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu defeated New Zealand paring of Amanda Landers-Murphy and Zac Miller in three games to reach the quarter-final.

9:07 am IST: BADMINTON - HS Prannoy looks far more comfortable in the second game. He goes into the break 11-4 after taking the first game 21-18. 

Some words of wisdom for Prannoy from India's cheif national coach Pullela Gopichand during the break. 

8:58 am IST: BADMINTON - HS Prannoy tested in first game of R16 match. 

Australia's Anthony Joe stretched Prannoy to the limits before the Indian shuttler clinched a 21-18 win in the first game. 

8:50 am IST: TABLE TENNIS - Contrasting results for Manika Batra and Madhurika Patkar

Manika Batra, the star of India's women's team gold medal, has reached the quarter-final of women's singles table tennis after beating Australia's Tracy Feng 4-1. 

On the other hand, Madhurika Patkar's hopes of reaching the last-eight round were dashed after her 4-1 loss to Kelly Sibley of England. 

8:45 am IST: HS Prannoy is in badminton men's singles Round of 16 action against Australia's Anthony Joe. 

Here's the complete round-up of badminton action from the morning session of Thursday, April 12. Check out the remaining fixtures as well. 

Badminton results from Day 8

Rankireddy and Ponnappa reach Mixed Doubles quarter-final

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa made it to the last-eight of mixed doubles category after beating Nyl Yakura and Kristen Tsai of Canada in straight games.

Chopra and Reddy reach mixed doubles quarter-final

Pranaav Chopra and Sikki Reddy made light work of Singapore's Crystal Wong and Bawa Chrisnanta to reach the quarter-final.

Ruthvika Shivani Gadde reaches women's singles quarter-final

Ruthivka Shivani won a hard-fought Round of 16 match against Singapore's Jia Min Yeo 21-10, 21-23, 21-10 in 55 minutes to reach the quarter-final of women's singles category.

More Round of 16 action is coming up. Fixtures below.

• Kidambi Srikanth vs Niluka Karunaratne (SRI) - Around 9 am IST
• PV Sindhu vs Chen Hsuan-Yu (AUS) - 9:10 am IST
• Saina Nehwal vs Jessica Li (IOM) - Not before 2:30 pm IST
• Satwiksairaj/Chirag Sheetty vs Aatish Lubah/Jean Paul Christopher (MRI) - Not before 2:30 pm IST
• Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa vs Ong Ren-Ne/Wong Jia Crystal (SGP - 4:20 pm IST

8 am IST: It has been a brilliant morning for Indian wrestlers in Gold Coast.

Rahul Aware makes to the final of men's 57kg freestyle.

The 26-year-old defeated Muhammad Bilal of Pakistan in a hard-fought semi-final. Aware pulled out an ankle lace, notching up six consecutive points from being 4-4. He won the match with a scoreline of 12-8.

Aware will take on Steven Takahashi of Canada in the final later today.

Sushil Kumar storms into men's 74kg freestyle final

The two-time Olympic medalist from India was dominant throughout the day and his semi-final bout against Australia's Conor Evans. He clinched a victory by fall as early as in the first period.

Sushil will now take on Johannes Botha of South Africa in the final later today.

Babita Kumari in gold medal match!

Babita, who is eyeing her second Commonwealth Games gold medal, has reached the final of women's Freestyle 53kg Nordic Category.

She has won all her bouts (three on three) so far and will take on Canada's Diana Weicker in the fourth group stage match, which will also serve as the gold medal match as no other wrestlers in the group can overtake the Babita and Weicker.

Check out the points table of Freestyle 53kg Nordic event here.

Kiran loses semi-final, eyes 76kg freestyle bronze

The 26-year-old was decimated in the semi-final of 76kg women's freestyle event as she was beaten via Technical Superiority (10-0) by Nigeria's Onyebuchi Blessing.

Kiran will now face Mauritius' Pariadhaven Katouskia in the bronze medal match later today.

Arpinder Singh, Rakesh Babu reaches men's triple jump final!

The 25-year-old finished on top of Group B qualifying round earlier this morning with a best jump of 16.39m, which he achieved in his first attempt.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Babu just managed to qualify for the 12-man final with a best jump of 15.98m.

Notably, no athlete across the two qualification groups managed to cross the automatic qualification mark of 16.60m.

Neeraj Kumar, Anish dominate 25m Rapid Fire Pistol qualification

India's Neeraj Kumar and Anish finished first and third, respectively, at the end of the qualification stage 1 of 25m Rapid Fire Pistol.

With 291 points, Neeraj finished four points clear of second-placed Sam Gowin.

Anish finished with 286 points.

The qualification Stage 3 will take place at the Belmont Shooting Centre tomorrow, which will be followed by the Finals.