Commonwealth Games 2018, Day 5: Shooters, shuttlers, paddlers join India's gold class party

The ever-reliable Jitu Rai's pistol shot down a gold and a Games record, while the mixed badminton and men's table tennis sides also picked up milestone top finishes as India shone through in both the individual and team events on a splendid day 5 of the 21st Commonwealth Games here.

Jitu started the gold rush today in the 10m air pistol event, shrugging off a weak qualifying round to shatter the Games record with a score of 235.1 in the final.

The weightlifters wrapped up their remarkable campaign with a final-day silver medal through Pardeep Singh (105kg), signing off with five gold, two silver and two bronze medals, topping the charts in the sport.

The 17-year-old Mehuli Ghosh grabbed a silver in the 10m air rifle, finishing ahead of experienced teammate Apurvi Chandela. Mehuli also shot a Games record score (247.2) in the process but missed out on gold in a shoot-off with Singapore's Martina Lindsay Veloso.

Also entering the final of a track and field event was high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, who finished a joint fifth in group A and ninth overall. The Indian cleared 2.21m in final analysis after starting out at 2.10m.

A bit of history was made in both table tennis and badminton. While the shuttlers thrashed three-time defending champions Malaysia, the paddlers first took down defending champions Singapore in the semifinals before sailing past Nigeria to claim gold medals.

Star shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal on Monday helped India clinch their maiden gold medal in mixed team badminton event after defeating Malaysia 3-1 in the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. This was India's 10th gold and 19th medal overall in the 21st CWG.