The opening day of the wrestling competitions witnessed something weird happening in the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 on Friday (July 5).
The embarrassing incident saw the wrestling bouts getting halted which forced the spectators to vacate the hall after a speaker dropped from the ceiling, right after the first session kicked off.
Only five bouts could be completed when a speaker, used to relay announcement, fell near one of the mat chairmen, raising a safety issue at the Ceventary stadium and arena on the opening day of the wrestling competitions.
The gathered fans were asked to vacate and a thorough check was ordered by the organisers, who fixed a restart of the session at 12:45 local time.
"All are safe, they are just rechecking the whole system to avoid any untoward incident," said a coach.
The resumption timing was changed thrice at the time of writing.
"We have been hearing that a speaker fell and everyone was told to vacate the area for a safety check," said a security officer at the venue.
An Indian official said, "We are in the warm up area. We heard about a speaker falling near the mat." A Pakistani team official was also inside the hall at the time of incident said, "I could not see it but something fell down. They said a speaker and we had to come out."
Everyone inside the venue was tight-lipped about what exactly happened as the spectators waited in the corridor, seeking clarity on resumption.
"We have been waiting for more than an hour. They said it would start soon but we have no clarity as of now," said Inderpal, fan.
Nine bouts had already taken place before session was stopped. Gold medal contender Bajrang Punia and Deepak Punia had won their bouts comfortably.
Meanwhile, talking about India's performance in the CWG 2022 so far after Day 7.
India could only two medals (one gold, one silver) on day 7 of the Commonwealth Games 2022, but there were encouraging results from the boxing ring, and also from the badminton and squash courts. Murali Sreeshankar from Kerala took the men's long jump silver to become the first Indian to win a medal in the event.
Sudhir then opened India's para sports medal account by winning the gold medal in men's heavyweight para powerlifting with a Games record. Earlier in the day, boxers Amit Panghal, Jaismine Lamboria, Sagar Ahalwat and Rohit Tokas assured India of more medals by making semis. Following their mixed bag in the team competitions, Indian badminton stars PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen have made it to the Round of 16 in the individual events.
The table tennis stars Achanta Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Manika Batra also have winning starts in doubles events. The Indian men’s hockey team defeated Wales 4-1 in Group B to enter the semi-finals. India now has 20 medals (six gold, seven silver, seven silver).
