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Another great day at the Games for hosts India, as they pulled out an almost unassailable lead in the Medal's Tally leading into the last day and a half of the Commonwealth Youth Games. The reason for maximum pride is that though India has dominated a few sports completely, the breadth of India's medals has come across sports giving Indians a reason to believe that the future of sports is in the right hands. With a haul of 22 medals today including 8 Golds, 7 Silvers and 7 Bronzes, India continues to lead the Medals Tally going into Day 5.

Dominating the Mat

India made a clean sweep of all 7 wrestling medals on offer by picking up two more Golds today in the Men's 63kg and 69kg categories. Ranjeet Nalawade the son of a farmer from Kohlapur, India beat Liya Abelev of Canada in the Gold medal bout of the 63kg category. The match was an easy outing for Nalawade as won fairly comfortably by two rounds to nil, sailing through the first 3-0 and the second 3-1. The second round was a lot more technical as Abelev battled to gain a foothold into the match, but Nalawade executed an excellent pinning combination to get a well deserved victory. Sampson Tunde of Nigeria came in third place through the repechage rounds winning his Bronze medal play-off quite comfortably over Lawrence Carson of England.

In the 69kg category we witnessed a thrilling final between Parveen Rana of India and Christo Lottering of South Africa. The first round in the best of three battle was decided by a solitary point that Parveen earned via a takedown. In what was a cagey opening neither athlete was able to really exert themselves on the bout as they seemed apprehensive of committing any mistakes. The second round was just as close - Parveen took an early lead only for Christo to quickly counter and draw himself level. With the round seemingly heading towards a tie, Parveen and Christo traded counter-holds which saw Parveen attempt a roll-over and Christo attempt to head out-of-bounds to save the match. In what was an extremely controversial moment - the umpire awarded it to the Indian, only for the South African team to appeal. The Technical jury appeared to rule in favour of South Africa, to which the Indian team requested a TV replay. The technical jury then reversed their decision and awarded a point to India which settled the tie. An evidently upset Christo was unfortunate not to push this exciting tie into a deciding round.

The Bronze in the 69kg category was won by Ali Harmouch of Australia. He beat Christ Tshikeva in a very high scoring bout 6-3, 7-1.

Ruling the field

India picked up 9 medals in Athletics today including a Gold each in the 4*400meter relays (Men & Women) and a pair of Gold & Silvers in the Javelin Throw and the Triple Jump. India's outstanding performance in these Games - India had won just 2 Golds in the last Youth Games in Australia - would have been looked at with some skepticism had it not been for a fact that so many new Games records have been set at the event.

The Women's 4*400m relay team of Chinchu, Anu Mariam, Arya & Poovamma set a new Games record of 3:42.02mins as they comfortably secured first place, beating the Canadian team by over 3½ secs. The Australian team came in third.

The Men's 4*400m relay team of Jithin, Dharambir, Inderjeet and Parveen also set a new Games record when they finished the distance in 3:13.32mins.

In an incredibly exciting Triple Jump final Sharda Ghule snatched the Gold medal away from compatriot Gayathri Govindharaj (12.89) in her sixth and final attempt with a leap of 13.11m (another Games record). Gayathri, already a medalist in last night's 4*100m relay and 200m sprint, had a slender lead over Sharda (then 12.82) going into the last round of jumps. Gayathri did get one last attempt to win the Gold back as she was jumping last, however could manage just a 12.78 in her last try.

The Men's Javelin throw saw Krishan Nand Tripathi in a league of his own, as three of his throws were better than everyone else's and yes, you guessed right, he did set a new Games record too! Rohit Kumar won the Silver and Luke Bissett of Australia took the Bronze.

Other notable Indians included Rositto Rayan & Azarudeen Buhari, who won Silver & Bronze respectively in the Men's Long Jump and Amiya Kumar Mallick, who took home the Bronze in the Men's 200m.

In a couple of all African sweeps from Moses Kibet & Dickson Huru from Uganda & Japhet Korir from Kenya won the Gold, Silver & Bronze medals respectively in the Men's 5000m and Mercy Koech (Ken), Doreen Chesang (Uga) & Mary Xwaymay Naali (Tanzania) picked up the medals in the Women's 3000m.

Table Tennis too proved to be a good hunting ground for India as the team picked up three medals - a Gold, Silver and Bronze. It was an all-Indian final in the Men's Singles as Sathiyan Gnansekaran beat Soumyajit Ghosh by 4 games to 2, 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-9. Though Soumyajit rallied hard, he struggled to ever really take control of the match and it was just a matter of time before Sathiyan wrapped up the win. The Bronze medal was won by Qiang Shen of Canada.

In the Women's Singles both Indian girls lost in the semi-finals setting up an all Singapore clash for the title. Isabelle Li beat Kai Xin Zena Sim 4 games 2 - 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 11-7, 8-11, 11-1. Soumi Mondal came back from 3 games to 1 down to beat Neha Aggarwal in a thrilling 7 game encounter - 11-8, 10-12, 8-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-8.

India picked up a couple of Silvers in Weightlifting as Aruna Rani in the Women's 63kg and Anup Deo Topo in the Men's 77kg category put in impressive performances. Paul Dumais of  Canada emerged victorious in the Men's 77kg with a phenomenal lift of 130kg in the Snatch giving him an unassailable lead heading into the Clean-and-Jerk (he lifted 157 in this round). Anup Topo produced an excellent lift of his own in the Clean-and-Jerk (CJ: 152kg, Total 269) to grab 2nd place from Abd Muhin Bin Rahim of Malaysia (Total 268).

Finally, to swimming where the 'cute-and-sexy' 6ft-3inch frame of Vir Dhawal Khade did more than drive the throngs of visitng school girls wild as he collected a Gold in the Men's 100m Freestyle and Silver in the 100m Butterfly.

Australia continued its near domination of the pool events today picking up another 16 medals including 5 Golds, 6 Silvers & 5 Bronze medals giving the team a slight hope of making a run for first place in the Medal's table with 10 medals at stake today.