Commonwealth Games 2018: Anish, Bajrang take India's medal tally to 42 on Day 9

Their gold medal tally surpassed the previous edition with 15-year-old shooter Anish Bhanwala becoming the youngest contributor to it but India had loads to be embarrassed about on a day when two track and field athletes were ordered out of the Commonwealth Games for breaching the event's 'No Needle policy' in Gold Coast.

India's medal tally rose to 42, including 17 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze. India had won 15 gold medals in the 2014 Glasgow Games. To focus on the positives, the day belonged to Anish, the Haryana wonderkid, who shot down a Games record for his gold in the 25m rapid fire pistol event. "I was fully expecting this medal because I have been doing it in other tournaments. The names keep changing but I get the same results," said the youngster, who is now busy worrying about his maths exam when he lands in India.

The wrestlers dominated the mat at the Crarrara Sports and Leisure center, picking up five medals today, though only Bajrang Punia (65kg) stood on top of the podium. Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Pooja Dhanda (57kg) picked up silver medals while Divya Kakran (68kg) notched a bronze on her CWG debut. "This gold medal proves the significant improvement in my wrestling career as I won silver at the last Commonwealth Games. I played four bouts, and I was prepared quite well for the competition," said Punia.

In the boxing ring, three men -- Naman Tanwar (91kg), Mohammed Husammuddin (56kg) and Manoj Kumar (69kg) -- settled for bronze medals. But Vikas Krishan (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) and the fast-rising trio of Amit Panghal (49kg), Gaurav Solanki (52kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg) entered the finals in what is turning out to be the team's best ever CWG show.

Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore went from one venue to another to support the competing Indian athletes but did not issue any statement on the latest incident, in which the officialdom was mostly caught napping. The athletes in question were barred from the Games even though neither of them was to compete.