Weightlifters get India 4 medals on Day 1

Weightlifters brought India's first four medals at the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi on Monday. Soniya Chanu won a silver and Sandhya Rani Devi a bronze in the women's 48 kg category. Soon, Sukhen Dey and Srinivasa Rao Valluri came up with a similar performance in the men's 56 kg.

Badminton was a cakewalk, tennis saw a good day and table tennis produced a mixed bag. The women's hockey team survived a scare, while the swimmers crashed out.

Chanu had a total lift of 167 kg - 73 kg in snatch and 94 kg in the clean and jerk section.

Sandhya Rani had a total lift of 165 kg (snatch 70 kg, clean and jerk 95 kg).

The gold, the first medal of CWG 2010, went to Nigerian Augustina Nwaokolo, who also set a Commonwealth record. She had a total lift of 175kg, with 77kg in the snatch and 98kg in the clean and jerk sections.

Dey lifted a total of 252 kg (snatch 112, clean and jerk 140) for the silver while Srinivasa Rao claimed the bronze with an overall lift of 248 kg (snatch 107, clean and jerk 141).

It was a cakewalk for India in their opening pool D match in the badminton mixed team event with a 5-0 drubbing of Kenya at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

The Indian team, which won the bronze at Melbourne in 2006, are seeded second behind Malaysia. The hosts literally toyed with the Kenyans in front of a sizeable crowd.

Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal won their singles matches, and then Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas made took the doubles before Ashwini Ponappa and Aparna Balan teamed up to win and finally the mixed pair V Diju and Jwala Gutta made it a clean sweep.

India will face Barbados Tuesday and will play Wales and Scotland on successive days.

Tennis stars Leander Paes and Sania Mirza rounded off a successful opening day for India at the R K Khanna Tennis Complex winning their match dropping just one gameto Saint Lucia's Stacey Nykita Roheman and Alberton Richelieu to enter the mixed doubles quarterfinals.

Rohan Bopanna kicked off the day with an emphatic straight sets victory over Uganda's Robert Buyinza to sail into the last 16 of the men's singles and Rushmi Charkravathi soon made it two in a row for India, dropping only one game in beating Pinki Agnes Montlha of Lesotho.

Poojashree Venkatesha hardly broke sweat blanking Lesotho's Nthabiseng Eunicia Nqosa.

The only blemish in India's campaign was the loss of Bopanna and Nirupama Sanjeev in the mixed doubles first round to top seeds Paul Hanley and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 3-6.

India had a mixed opening day in table tennis as the men breezed past island nation Vanuatu while the women lost one of their two group matches against New Zealand.

The Indian eves registered a comfortable 3-0 victory over Sri Lanka in the morning but lost 2-3 in a close match against the impressive New Zealanders later in the day at the Yamuna Sports Complex.

Four of the five New Zealand players are of Chinese origin.

The women's team, bronze medallists four years ago,is seeded fourth in the tournament.

The women's hockey competition also began Monday and India survived a scare against Scotland in pool A, salvaging a 1-1 draw after being down by a third minute goal.

The Scots were off to a great start when Holly Cram found the net in the third minute. India dominated the rest of the game, but missed chances until Jasjeet Kaur scored the equalizer in the 45th minute.

India's men's 4x100 metres freestyle relay swimming team qualified for the finals but finished sixth, as they had in the heats at the at the S.P.Mukherjee Aquatics Complex.

In the men's 50m backstroke, Badrinath Melkote clocked 27.52 secs to qualify for the semi-finals, but couldn't move any further.

Indian swimmers also failed to qualify in the women's 200m freestyle, men's 400m freestyle, women's 200m individual medley, men's 200m butterfly and women's 50m breaststroke.

Indian archers dominate day 1 of Commonwealth Games

The wind changed its course at the Yamuna Sports Complex in the eastern fringes of the capital, but that did not break India's rhythm as the recurve archers adjusted to the condition to dominate the ranking round on the opening day of their event at the 19th Commonwealth Games here.

However, the ride wasn't so smooth for the compound archers as they had to fight it out against some of the best.

Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar occupied the top two positions after returning scores of 679 points and 676 after two rounds of 36 arrows over a distance of 70m.

Cadet world champion Deepika Kumari pipped two-time Olympian and 2007 World Finals champion Dola Banerjee for the top spot in the women's recurve.

"Today, the wind direction was opposite (than in previous days). From the last few days, it was from left to right but today, it was from right to left. But we did well to adjust, I am really happy with the show," Indian chief coach Limba Ram said.

Teen sensation Deepika, fresh from her World Cup final stint in Edinburgh, was in her elements as she scored 662 points. Veteran Dola shot 658, while Naomi Anne Folkard of England was third with 642.

"I am feeling really good, its only the ranking round hopefully we will do well in the championship round as well," Deepika told reporters.

She also said England are going to give them the "biggest fight". India's third entry, Laishram Bombayla Devi, was ninth with 624.

In men's recurve, Canada's Jason Lyon was third with 674 while India's third entry Tarundeep Rai, back in the team after a slump in form, finished 13th.

The Sikkim archer, who represented India at the Athens Olympics 2004, shot 647 points.

World No 5 Talukdar said: "It makes me feel happy as it is my home ground and also the pressure is there. I feel confident today, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

"It feels great to play in your own country because the home cheer is there," the Guwahati archer told reporters.

There was a tie with Jayanta (Taulkdar) but I was three points higher then him. From tomorrow, there will be an elimination round which is very important."

In the team event, India topped with 1944 points, England was second with 1904 and Australia finished third with 1841.

CWG Hockey: Indian women held by Scotland

Reigning silver medalists India were held to a 1-1 draw by lowly Scotland in their opening Pool A match of the women's hockey event at the Commonwealth Games, at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Monday.

The Indians fought back from a 0-1 deficit and scored through Jasjeet Kaur Handa (45th minute) after Scotland took the lead in the third minute from a Holly Gram field goal.

The Indians had a mixed day in office, displaying contrasting hockey in both halves. While the home team looked out of sorts in the opening period, they dominated proceedings after the breather.

India looked clueless in the first half, sparkling only in patches, while the Scots were by far the better side on display as they combined well to put pressure on the opponent's defence on numerous occasions.

In front of a sparse crowd that gathered at the stadium, India conceded a goal early in the opening half, and from there on played the catch-up game in the rest of the half.

The less-fancied Scots surged ahead as early as in the third minute when Gram scored from a field goal from the left wing.

The Indians, however, got numerous opportunities to draw level but poor ball control and finishing let them down.

Stunned by the opening half goal, the Indians came out with purpose after the change of ends, which was evidently visible in their game.

They went all out, attacking from the onset, and their efforts bore fruit in the 45th minute when Handa drew parity with a field goal after a one-two with Ritu Rani.

Scotland got a great chance to restore their lead two minutes later but Samantha Judge's fierce strike from the top

of the Indian circle went agonisingly wide off the target.

However, in the final 10 minutes of the match, it was all India as the hosts made numerous raids into the rival citadel for the elusive winner but on all occasions, either luck or the stubborn Scottish defence, came in their way.

The draw against 21st ranked Scotland, however, is a disappointing result for the Indian eves, who are looking

forward to emulate their gold medal-winning feat in the 2002 Manchester Games, after having lost out on the opportunity in Melbourne fours years ago.

India next the face the mighty Australians while Scotland will be up against Trinidad and Tobago.

Meanwhile, in the other women's hockey matches of the day, New Zealand defeated Wales 5-1 in Pool B, South Africa trounced Trinidad and Tobago 12-0 in Pool A, while Malaysia beat Canada 3-2 in Pool B.

Australia bags 4X100 freestyle Gold

A storming finish by teenager James Magnussen has helped Australia break the Commonwealth Games record and claim the 4x100m freestyle relay gold medal at Delhi.

The team of Kyle Richardson, Eamon Sullivan, Tommaso D'Orsogna and Magnussen clocked 3:13.92 to finish ahead of England (3:15.05) and South Africa (3:15.21).

The effort eclipsed the previous Games record of 3:14.97 set by South Africa in Melbourne 2006.

Former world record holder Eamon Sullivan's scorching second leg of 47.49 seconds moved a sluggish Australia from fourth to first.

D'Orsogna kept Australia in front until the final change before England's Adam Brown ambushed Magnussen.

The 19-year-old looked gone when Brown led at the final turn before he found another gear to seal Australia's third gold medal of the opening night in the pool.

It was a welcome relief for the Australian men in the swimming team, who have been forced to play second fiddle to their female counterparts in recent years.

Their lowest point came in the 2006 Melbourne Games, when the Australian men managed just one gold - in the 4x100m medley relay on the final night of competition.

That trend looked set to continue when red hot favourite Nick D'Arcy failed to make the 200m butterfly final.

Then Ryan Napoleon - who overcame a drug ban and Delhi belly to make the 400m freestyle final - was pipped at the post by Canada's Ryan Cochrane.

Olympic silver medalist Sullivan said the men's team had been inspired to earn their first gold medal of the Games following D'Arcy's debacle.

"After a bit of a shock with D'Arcy missing the final, we wanted to come out and produce the goods and set the tone for the rest of the meet for the guys," he said.

"That's what we have got to carry through for the rest of the meet."

Kylie Palmer gets first swimming Gold

y 1 Australian swimmer Kylie Palmer has collected the first swimming gold medal at New Delhi 2010, winning the women's 200-meter freestyle in one of the highest-profile sports at the Commonwealth Games.

Palmer finished in 1 minute, 57.50 seconds, with Jazmin Carlin of Wales earning silver in 1:58.29 and Rebecca Adlington of England, the 400- and 800-meter Olympic champion, taking bronze in 1:58.47.

Four more swimming gold medals were to be awarded later Monday and 44 overall in the six-day program at the Dr. Dr. S. P. Mukherjee Aquatics Complex.

South Africa picks up 2 medals in swimming

Team South Africa have got their medals tally off to a flying start on the opening day of competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi by earning two medals in swimming events.

(Click here to see Day 1 medals tally)

Durban matric pupil Chad Le Clos won the country’s first medal of the competition with victory on the 200m butterfly.

Swimming in lane two Le Clos burst through from nowhere in the final lap to touch first, upstaging a field that included teammate Sebastien Rousseau and England swimmers Paul Rock and Peter Roebuck.

The 18-year-old Le Clos, who competed in his first European galas only last year, was well out of the top three throughout the race, although Rouseau was third going into the final turn.

The South African 4x100m freestyle relay team earned bronze.

The relay team, victors at the 2006 Games in Melbourne, were beaten into third place by Australia and England, but they at least ensured a relay medal for SA for the third successive Games. They won silver in Manchester 2002.

Bopanna, Sanjeev defeated by Aussie pair

Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna had to face defeat with his partner Nirupama Sanjeev against the Australian pair of Anastasia Rodionova and Paul Hanley in the mixed doubles at the Commonwealth Games here on Monday.

They lost the match by 3-6,6-3,3-6 score.

Earlier, Bopanna defeated Robert Buyinza of Uganda with 6-1,6-4 in the men's singles tennis event.

On Sunday, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and Prince Charles jointly inaugurated the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital.

The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games was marked by a multicrore cultural extravaganza, dance, music and fireworks.

It was a magnificent opening that offered a glimpse of India's great heritage and tradition through a light, music and dance show, which led to the opening of the 11-day sporting extravaganza.