AUCKLAND: India bid farewell to the XIV commonwealth games on a winning note when Narinder Singh secured a bronze medal in the Judo competition in the under 60 kg category here on Feb 3rd.
India’s first medal in Judo had come from Rajinder Bhanger. Narender Singh fought gallantly and deserved to win his bronze medal. He won the opening bout against Hong Kong’s Woon Yin An whom he pinned down in one minute and 34 secs.
In the next round he met Carl Finey (England), the eventual gold medalist. The fight was absorbing but the better equipped English-man bagged the bout in four minutes, 46 seconds. However, the defeat did not unnerve Narender Singh as be seemed to know that he yet had a chance to figure in the medals tally.
He encountered a robust opposition from Shane Vigilione (Australia) before scoring points victory after five minutes of absorbing bout, this gave Narender the bronze.
Carl Finney claimed gold, while Kevin West got silver. Welshman James Charles ‘and Narender Singh got bronze,
In the women’s section, however, India’s performance continued to be sub-standard. In under 48kgs, Triveni Mannengaraj defeated Mie Ling Chan (Hong Kong) in four minutes, but lost her next two bouts 10 Kiran Briggs (England) in only 20 secs and then to Donna Robertson (Scotland) on points in 2 min 30 secs,
In the men’s open, Cawas billimoria lost to Christopher Bacon (Australia) on points in five minutes.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 16, 1990
