CWG Day 4: India, England neck and neck for second place
7:45pm
Standings after Thursday's matches in the Commonwealth Games men's field hockey competition as reported by AFP.
Pool A
| Rank | Country | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points |
| 1 | Australia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 | India | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Malaysia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | Scotland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Pool B
| Rank | Country | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points |
| 1 | New Zealand | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | England | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | South Africa | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Canada | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Trinidad & Tobago | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
6:10pm
The family of a Commonwealth Games worker left in a coma when a footbridge collapsed said the Indian government had abandoned them after his doctor revealed he will die, reports the Telegraph.
More twitter talk:
thesatbir Take your kids to at least one event. They'll remember it more than the mall visits (sply if you stay in Gurgaon). #CWG
dimpto @peterrk yeh I agree.. I'm even willing to watch Kenya & Nauru as long as there is no more of swimming & cycling! #cwg#cwgdelhi
jamesramya #CWG Wat's point of booking online if only 1place issues physical tickets? Q takes 2hr.Missed tennis match today.No wonder stadium is empty!
swapcoolkarni Its raining gold at #cwg! India wins the 14th gold! Jai ho!!!
dimpto Who says there are no crowds @ #CWG ? Dhyanchand Stadium is packed for #IndvsAus #hockey match :) #cwgdelhi
5:50pm
The England team at the Commonwealth Games said it received assurances from organisers about the quality of the water in the Delhi swimming pool onThursday after reports of swimmers falling sick, Reuters reports.
Games Federation chief Michael Fennell earlier ordered aninvestigation into media reports that a significant number ofEnglish athletes had been hit by "Delhi Belly".
"We must handle this immediately," Fennell told reporters."If there is something that is unsafe, you can't swim in thatwater. We have to deal with it. It's a matter we have to dealwith the greatest of urgency."
Meanwhile England's Imogen Cairns won the women's gymnastics vault gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday, with Canadians Gabby May and Kristin Klarenbach taking silver and bronze, AFP reports.
England's Rebecca Adlington put in a gutsy performance on Thursday, shrugging off illness to win the women's 800m freestyle gold.
5:20pm
Geeta of India won the women's 55kg freestyle wrestling gold medal at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday, beating Emily Bensted of Australia in the final, AFP reports.
Lovina Edward of Nigeria won the bronze.
5:15pm
Top seed and British Open champion Nick Matthew beat English compatriot Peter Barker 11-9, 11-2, 11-9 to reach the Commonwealth Games squash final on Thursday, AFP reports.
5:10pm
South Africa's Natalie Du Toit on Thursday won her second gold of the Commonwealth Games, taking the women's 100m freestyle S9 race, AFP reports.
The 26-year-old led from the front to come home in a new Games record of 1:02.36. England's Stephanie Millward won bronze, with Ellie Cole of Australia in third.
Du Toit, who won the 50m freestyle S9 on Tuesday, lost her leg in a motorbike accident and is one of the world's best-known para-athletes.
5:00pm
South Africa's Chad Le Clos on Thursday won gold in the men's 400m individual medley, AFP reports.
The 18-year-old - already a champion at the 200m butterfly - romped away from the gun to win in a new Commonwealth Games record of 4:14.25.
Australian Thomas Pichler won the men's gymnastics floor gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday, with England's Reiss Beckford in silver and India's Ashish Kumar in bronze.
Meanwhile, Canada held England to a 1-1 draw in a Commonwealth Games men's Pool B hockey match here on Thursday.
4:50pm
Pakistan’s Qadir Khan lost 7-0 to India’s Akhil Kumar in their first boxing match at the Commonwealth Games, Online reports.
Akhil, who had never faced the Pakistan boxer before, displayed aggressive play throughout the match and did not allow his Pakistani counterpart to score even a single point.
On the women’s wrestling front, Carol Huynh of Canada won the women's 48kg freestyle wrestling gold medal at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday, beating Nirmala Devi of India in the final, AFP reports.
Odunayo Adekuroye of Nigeria won the bronze.
Twitter talk on the games:
BurnItBC Some impressive results in the commonwealth games! Can the human body get and stronger / faster? #CWG
sandipb That was a surprise. India got a bronze in the men's floor gymnastics. #cwg #delhi2010
sudhir_asb Half d sports in d #cwg are stupid. Bring cricket,moto racing,football and f1 from the next event I say.
NeoNightwing The quality of competition in the #CWG is really poor.No big deal winning all these medals.Now Laxman's knock-THAT's a big deal.
ddggn waited for 1 hrs at #CWG ticket counter in MGF metropolitan mall #Gurgaon along with others, no one there to sell tickets...
Sshankara #CWG. USA was once upon a time a colony of the Brits too. How come they are not part of the CW. Thing to be noted, why we still enslaved!!!
4:05 pm
Tribune blogger Venkat Ananth explains why the Games are like a Punjabi wedding:
In a way, we chose to opt to put up a show, and cheerlead to the best of our abilities. The objective, as time passed by, shrunk from “displaying India’s might as an emerging superpower” to “creating a sporting culture” to of course, “delivering a good Games”. And right through this discourse, there were disturbing narratives – which ranged from rank corruption to incompetence to a complete collapse of governance to everything wrong within the Indian system: a largely corrupt system complemented by an inefficient bureaucracy.
Our Sports Minister Dr MS Gill chose to liken these Games to a Punjabi wedding, whose grandeur hinged upon last-minute preparations. Reading between the lines of this ridiculous statement, you knew what we were planning to settle for mediocrity, despite the repeated cacophony of “delivering the best games ever”.
The build-up also hinted at the brazen cover-up that some of the politicians in the organizing committee had indulged in: a thorough lack of responsibility, the shameless act of constantly passing the buck, matched equally by some of the most irresponsible and unacceptable comments I’ve ever come across (ref: Lalit Bhanot and his standards of hygiene).
3:55 pm
Australia's on-form Alicia Coutts on Day 4 swam to her third CWG gold, winning the women's 100m butterfly in sensational style.
The 23-year-old from Brisbane surged ahead in the final lap to touch first in a time of 57.53secs, ahead of England's Melbourne-based swimmer Ellen Gandy and Jemma Lowe of Wales.
3:45 pm
A female athlete from Wales has allegedly been harassed by a man at the CWG Village.
The Indian police said that a man, who is yet to be identified, forcibly tried to take the picture of the athlete in the village campus on Day 2. The complaint was registered on Day 3.
Police Spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said the security officials of the Wales team approached the police station in the village and explained the whole incident.
He said the police have registered a complaint of harassment against an unidentified person and are investigating the case.
The Games village has restricted entry and only people with CWG accreditation are allowed to enter the compound.
3:40 pm
Malaysia angrily hit out at the absence of video referral at the Delhi competition after they suffer a shock 2-1 defeat to Wales in CWG women's field hockey on Day 4, AFP reports.
Wales took the lead in the 24th minute off a penalty stroke which saw Leah Wilkinson's powerful drive zip through the goalkeeper's legs.
Malaysia, who have now lost two of their three matches in Pool B, equalised through a penalty by captain Nadia Rahman Abdul but ended up conceding a goal in the 56th minute to Welsh full-back Claire Lowry.
Abdul insisted her team had been let down by poor umpiring. "We are very disappointed by the decision of the umpire to award a penalty stroke," she said.
"At best, it warranted a penalty corner. But this is what happens when you don't have video referrals.
"It is fair to both teams when you have the referrals. But this is the way it is. We will try to leave the disppointment behind and give our best against England in the next match."
The video referral system, which has been in place at all major tournaments since 2006, is not being used for the Delhi Games as the organisers reportedly made a late request to the FIH, the game's world governing body.
3:25 pm
Tweeple react to condom-clogged drains at CWG village:
venkatananth RT @madversity: Thousands of used condoms choke Games village toilets. So Delhi now in the news for rubbers, not robbers #CWG
geetiga This is done to bring audience in the stadiums...man desperate tyms call for desperate measures like bring all JATS at one pilace.. :) #cwg
IndianBrat #CWG Condoms block toilets in the Games village.....Why no dust bins? Are dust bins siphoned off by CWG boys?
Alex1571 "The toilets are blocked with condoms!" "Hurrah, the athletes use condoms." #CWG
3:15 pm
India's troubles mount as dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, is at a 20-year high as the country hosts the CWG.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that 2.5 billion people are at risk from one of the world's fastest-emerging infections, which has "grown dramatically in recent decades."
In India, government hospitals in New Delhi are overflowing with dengue victims as the city hosts 7,000 foreign athletes and officials for the the CWG, which finish next Thursday.
A C Dhariwal, director of India's National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme, told AFP that cases in India were at a 20-year high with 50 people dead and 12,000 reported infections.
The number of actual infections is likely to be far higher. He blamed the delayed construction work for the CWG for part of the problem in New Delhi, where monsoon rains have been at their strongest in years.
"Delays in Games construction and urban improvement projects are to blame for the severe dengue outbreak since mounds of rubble and puddles are strewn across the city," he said.
Last week an official with the Indian lawn bowls squad contracted dengue, the first person associated with the Games to to do so.
Several preventative steps can be taken. The most important is to ensure there is no standing water near residential areas where mosquitoes breed. Spraying insecticide, an approach taken by many city authorities, can also help, as does applying mosquito repellent and wearing long sleeves and trousers.
3:00 pm
Anna Meares of Australia wins her third gold medal of the CWG in the women's sprint final on Day 4.
2:50 pm
India's Commonwealth Games weightlifting champion Renu Bala had to catch a rickshaw back to the athletes village after she missed the official transport.
The 24-year-old, who retained her 58kg title on Day 3, left the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with her parents, leaving officials to claim that they didn't know where she had gone.
"There are buses for the athletes, but she decided to go off with her parents and gave no information to anybody," said Games secretary-general Lalit Bhanot.
"We didn't know about it. If she had asked for help we would have provided it."
Auto-rickshaws, or tuk-tuks, are a common sight on the gridlocked roads of the Indian capital with 55,000 registered vehicles scrambling for trade.
Tweets on Delhi traffic:
anuradha_kush I just created a new #cwg record of finding an auto in minimum time. 43 min 28 sec. Beat that! #Delhi
christinedelhi deliciously quiet in my #delhi street. hardly any traffic cos of #cwg. Can't they go on for ever ?
2:25 pm
Australia won the battle of the track cycling superpowers with a lap to spare when they smashed their own Commonwealth record to take gold in the men's 4000m team pursuit, AFP reports.
Australia, who have taken all but one of the nine golds on offer so far, coasted past New Zealand in a time of 3min 05.476sec at the Indira Gandhi velodrome.
2:20 pm
Now, in a bizarre incident, India denounced "racist" and "unacceptable" remarks made by a New Zealand television anchor about an Indian minister and summoned the country's ambassador to present a complaint, AFP reports.
The presenter, Paul Henry, ridiculed the name of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit earlier this week, adding: "It's so appropriate because she's Indian ... I've known about her for a while and I've been laughing ever since."
India's Foreign Minister SM Krishna summoned High Commissioner Rupert Holborow, who said he had expressed "deep regret" and described the comments as "culturally insensitive, inappropriate and vulgar".
In a strongly worded statement from the Indian foreign ministry, the government condemned Henry's "bigoted views" and asked the New Zealand authorities to "take immediate demonstrative action".
"The government strongly and unequivocally denounces the racist remarks of the journalist in question," a statement said.
1:55 pm
More gold for Canada as Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon followed up her win in the solo with another gold after the free routine with Chloe Isaacs in the synchronised swimming duet at the CWG. England's Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison won silver. Australia's Eloise Amberger and Sarah Bombell won bronze.wins gold on Thursday in the synchronised swimming duet at the Commonwealth Games.
1:20 pm
Proud Indian fans Tweet away
thesatbir Take your kids to at least one event. They'll remember it more than the mall visits (sply if you stay in Gurgaon). #CW (TOP TWEET)
violajewels India is getting so many golds at #CWG and creating so many smiles, maybe we got something to do with it! :D
Abhii88 Sona mehanga kya hua, Indians Gold medals jeetne lag gaye. #justsaying #CWG Lage Raho :)
cooldivay Indian gymnasts have created history, making it to the final rounds of four individual events #CWG
Sayroy Had vented out the frustration during #CWG build up; extremely proud of the opening ceremony, a cracker piece !!
12:30 pm
Australia lead with the highest number of golds so far on Day 4 with 22 golds, followed by India (11 golds) and then England (5 golds). View the medal table here.
Australian atheletes continue to take the Games by storm as Alethea Sedgman wins women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions gold.
12:25 pm
Canada are now even with Malaysia in the race for gold as Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon on Day 4 wins gold in the solo synchronised swimming at the CWG. Congratulations to Canada!
12:15 pm
Australia is on a gold rush as Dunn wins women's scratch race gold medal. Here's a funny Tweet about Australian swimmers:
nishantways I suggest to put all Australian swimmers in one heat. The other not-so-swimming nations will have a fair chance then.#cwg
12:10 pm
The Daily Telegraph reported that a condom vending machine had been installed at the village, containing around 4,000 contraceptive packs.
Commonwealth Games chief Mike Fennell said he was happy to see competitors engaging in safe sex at the athletes village even if it caused problems with the plumbing.
Reports claimed that thousands of used condoms had been clogging up the toilets at the village, which is home to 7,000 competitors.
"This shows that athletes are being responsible and are promoting safe sex," said Commonwealth Games Federation president Fennell on Thursday.
12:00 pm
The car accident that occurred at the gates of the CWG village was caused by a safety equipment malfunction, the Ugandan high commission said on Day 4.
The officials aboard the vehicle - Games chef de mission William Tumwine, press attache Juliet Acom, and administrative officer Irene Matovu - were travelling to the athletes' village on Day 2 when their car was struck by a "tyre killer."
The underground "tyre killer" barrier is a sharp-edged device that pops up to stop unauthorised cars.
Ugandan minister counsellor Dora Kutesa told AFP the officials were hospitalised and two of them required stitches for facial injuries.
"There were police there and no one came forward to help them," Kutesa said. "They had to call the ambulance themselves."
A Delhi police spokesman confirmed that the accident occurred because of a malfunctioning tyre killer which has since been disabled.
11:45 am
It seems that the golds are piling up for England as it wins the women's archery compound team gold medal at the CWG on Day 4 ahead of Canada and India.
Here is a congratulatory Tweet:
meamccut Well done england for another gold and hope their delhi belly goes quickly #commonwealth
11:40 am
India is on a gold rush as it bags another medal thanks to Vijay Kumar and Gurpreet Singh who won the gold medal in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Pairs event on Day 4. Go team India!
11:30 am
#Delhibelly is hot on Twitter
Mandy_McEvoy wonders why, with all this alleged #Delhibelly at the #CWG - the Aussies didn't think to ship over tonnes of baked beans - a la Warney ?
BluePhoenixGirl Anyone watching the #commgames getting tired of hearing about #delhibelly yet? I think it's a competition to use it as many times possible.
GlossyPossy Judging by the looks of it Delhi, there's going to be a lot of anal leakage in a day or two!!! #commgames #delhibelly
Melloyellow O snap! The 3 stooges tag teamed a Hindi service today outside Delhi, alone! The Chirstians here are on fiya, so is there food. #Delhibelly
11:15 am
Organisers are adamant to get to the bottom of the pool quality issue as an investigation is launched into the water quality at the troubled event's pool on Day 4 after reports that over 50 swimmers had fallen ill.
Around 40 English competitors and 12 Australians had complained of feeling unwell after competing at the Mukherjee Aquatics Complex, with team officials insisting that the problem area was the warm-up pool.
"We must investigate this immediately. If the water is unsafe then clearly you can't swim in it," said Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell.
"Water and food quality is tested. We are concerned if athletes can't perform to their best."
Stomach problems being experienced by swimmers have already forced two Australian medal prospects to pull out.
11:05 am
Suffering from Delhi belly?
Stomach problems hit more swimmers on Day 4, forcing two Australian medal prospects to pull out, as a clutch of champions looked to add to their golds and beaten finalists sought revenge.
Olympic bronze medallists Andrew Lauterstein and Hayden Stoeckel failed to start in the 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke heats because of "gastro" problems, a team spokesman told AFP.
Illness forced the much-fancied Lauterstein to miss the 50m butterfly final on Day 3.
A Canada swimming spokesman said several team members were also suffering from minor complaints but England duo Rebecca Adlington and Fran Halsall had recovered and were cleared to compete, Team England said.
The withdrawal of Stoeckel - who was second to Tancock in the 50m - opens the door for any one of four other swimmers, including bronze medallist in the sprint Ashley Delaney of Australia.
The following Tweet is disturbing but the rumour is unconfirmed:
MichaelByrnes There are rumours that bugs in the Commonwealth Games pool are causing gastro. The competitors are anything but undeterred. #cwg #delhi2010
Express 24/7 reports that the pool quality is being investigated by officials.
10:45 am
It seems that the Games are plunging into further chaos as three Ugandan officials, including their chef de mission, spent a night in hospital after an accident during a security check at CWG.
Wilson Tumwine and two aides were hospitalised on Day 2 after their vehicle hit a barrier at the entry to the Games Village around 2200 local time.
Tumwine and one of his aides needed stitches, but the three were released on Day 3.
"I am shocked and surprised. But I am fine now," Tumwine told Reuters on Day 4.
"I am going to raise the issue at the chef-de-commissions meeting tomorrow."
1732643921-0/4548774-1403918848-(1)1732643921-0-270x192.webp "pakistan to strengthen naval defence with its first frigate sized warship")
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