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Ankush Bhardwaj won India's first gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games by winning the 50 metre free pistol event. Ankush, who is coached by Jaspal Rana's younger brother, Subhash had a score of 509 which defeated his nearest and only opponent by a handsome margin of 273 points. This, Chhundiyali (Ambala district) born youngster had already performed credibly in events like the Hungarian open where he won 2 bronze medals and the Junior World Cup also in Hungary which saw him finish a respectable 5th.

Ankush is a student of B.A. (Pass) at Delhi's Hansraj College and he comes from a humble teaching family. In an exclusive interview with TheSportsCampus.com, the young lad remarked, "My opponents are irrelevant, my only true competition is with myself." Also speaking at the occasion Indian team coach Deep Bhatia remaked that despite his gold, he was a little disappointed with Ankush's overall score which was well below his personal best of 536, and he believes that Ankush has it in him to scale the peaks of 560 in the very near future. However, Ankush is still very young in the sport having trained only for the last three years - on a family holiday in Dehradun he ventured into a shooting range and shocked everyone with his amazing accuracy. Ankush was especially grateful to the role played by his coach Subhash who he feels has done a lot to build his self belief, apart from introducing him to the nuances of the sport.

Up next for Ankush is the 10m air pistol tomorrow, an event where the competition will be significantly tougher.

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Earlier in the day Binte Aqilah Sudhir of Singapore won the first Gold medal of the games shooting an oustanding 398 in her qualifying round and following it up with a 103 (consolidated 501.0) in the finals to secure first place in the 10m Air Rifle Women's event. In the finals she faced stiff competition from Canadian Monica L Fyfe who came in second with a score of 496.1. Winning the Bronze for Malaysia was Abdul Hali Nur Ayuni Binti with a score of 492.2

India's lone hope in the event - Ayonika Paul was extremely unlucky to finish 4th with a score of 491.7. Ayonika shot a 9.8 in her last attempt - anything above 10.3 would have given her a bronze - though in reality it was her second shot an abyssmal 9.2 that really cost her dear.

Scottish star Jennifer McIntosh and English hopeful Sheree Cox finished 5th and 7th respectively.

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Rahi Sarnobat won India's 2nd shooting gold medal of the day after a thrilling final which lasted 40 minutes. Rahi fended off stiff competition from Malaysian youngster, Azahari Binti to clinch the gold in the 25 Metre Pistol event for women.

Rahi and Azahari were deadlocked at 550 points each before the final round began, but the Indian girl showed nerves of steel to outclass her opponent and won with a healthy margin of over 5 points scoring 748.1 to Azahari's 742.9. Australian shooter, Hayley Chapman clinched the bronze with a decent score of 729.3.

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Diksha Gaikwad of India notched up India's third Gold of the day in the Women's 48kg weightlifting category. Having scratched at her first attempt to lift 62kg in the Snatch, Diksha rallied well lifting 62kg and 64kg in her following two attempts. She faced stiff competition from Canadian Jessica Ruel who lifted 61kg in her 2nd attempt, but failed to lift 64kg in her final attempt . As, a result Diksha took a slender 3kg lead into the Clean-and-Jerk round. With their next closest competitor Utako Aliki another 4kg behind, it was pretty much a two-horse race for the Gold.

The Jerk was an interesting affair with both Jessica and Diksha lifting 73kg in their first attempt. Utako lifted 71kg and then went for broke attempting 81kg in her two remaining efforts to try and catch-up with the leaders, regretably she stumbled on both occasions. Jessica lifted 75kg in her second try, Diksha on her turn went one better. Now trailing by 4, it was disappointing to see Jessica attempt only a 77kg lift knowing she needed 80kg to win Gold (maybe she was concerned about Utako still chasing them...).

Though Diksha scratched her final attempt of 79kg, she was assured of a Gold and Jessica finished 2nd with a combined score of 138.

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Shiv Shankar Singh of India set a new Commonwealth Youth Games record in the Clean and Jerk category with a lift of 123kg, but still could only manage a silver medal, with Fiji's Tulo Manueli running away with the gold. Malaysian, Bin Ammeran Khai Rul won the bronze with a total lift of 215kg.

Manueli's brilliant performance in the Snatch of 97kg (total 219kg) over Shiv Shankar's 93kg (total 216kg) is what made the difference in the end as Shiv could not make up the 4 kgs in the Clean and Jerk and had to settle for a 2nd place finish.