Prateek Tanmay
3 min readJul 25, 2026 11:33 PM IST
The India lawn bowls women’s pair of Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki Singh as well as boxer Sachin Siwach were the shining lights in an otherwise disappointing day for India at the Commonwealth Games (CWG). In lawn bowls, men’s singles Putul Sonowal suffered his first defeat after back to back victories in the Games while swimmers Dhakshan Shashikumar (3:58.09s) and Aryan Nehra (4:00.26s) failed to qualify for the final of the 400m freestyle event.
Also, it was a day to forget for the wheelchair women’s basketball team, with India losing 1-16 vs Wales in their Group B match.
Siwach, a medal prospect, beat familiar foe Keoma Al-Ahmadieh of Canada in a round of 32 clash which he won 4-1 in a split verdict in the men’s first round bout at the SEC Centre. The 26-year-old will next face England’s William Hewitt in the round of 16.
In lawn bowls competition, Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki Singh maintained their impressive momentum with a third straight win in women’s pairs, while Putul Sonowal tasted his first defeat after back-to-back victories in men’s singles. Rupa and Pinki continued their dominant run, prevailing over Tonga 2-0 in tie-breaker of women’s pairs third round match in Section B to stay on course for a berth in the semifinals. Rupa and Pinki will face their Namibian counterparts in their fourth round match in Section B on Sunday. India and England both have three wins in as many games in Section B of the women’s pairs sectional play but the latter are ahead on set count.
In the men’s singles, Sonowal made a gritty fight but lost his men’s singles third round match 0-2 (4-8, 8-9) to Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple of Malaysia. After losing the first, Sonowal trailed 5-9 in the second but made a remarkable recovery in the ‘End 7′. But that was not enough as the Indian lost the second set by a thin margin.
The 43-year-old Assam Police officer grabbed the headlines on Thursday by defeating reigning world champion Ryan Bester of Canada in the opening round, but was pushed to the limit before overcoming Falkland Islands’ Cecil Alexander in a tie-break in the second round of Section D. He is now in the second spot in the Section D standings and faces Shaun James Parnis of Malta on Sunday.
Shashikumar (3:58.09s) and Nehra (4:00.26s) finished 15th and 16th respectively amongst the 27 swimmers in the 400m freestyle heats at the Tollcross Swimming Centre.
(With agency inputs)
