Achilleos and Hasikos win second gold for Cyprus in Delhi

Georgios Achilleos and Andreas Hasikos won the second gold medal for Cyprus at the XIX Commonwealth Games as they topped 11 other pairs in the Men’s Skeet Pairs at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range yesterday afternoon.

The Cypriot duo started strongly as the former gold medallist Achilleos marked a perfect 25 points in the first round, while Hasikos followed his more experienced teammate with 23. They combined for 49 points in the second round and the brilliant Achilleos continued his flawless performance until the end, marking 100 out of possible 100 points in the session.

The total score of 194 points was more than enough to bring Cyprus their second gold medal at the XIX Commonwealth Games and to maintain the Cypriots’ dominance of the event which they have won in every Commonwealth Games since 1994, making this trophy their fifth consecutive gold medal of this event. With yesterday’s total Achilleos and Hasikos levelled the games record set by Achilleos himself together with Antonis Nikolaides at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.

Jason Hughes Caswell and Richard McBridge of Canada took the silver medal with a total of 191 points, while the English pair Clive Bramley and Richard Brickell who also marked 191 points had to settle for bronze on the countback system as their final round was inferior to the Canadians.

In the Men’s Single Table Tennis event Marios Yiangou reached the quarter-finals yesterday after beating Garry Dodd of Guernsey 4-0 in Round 64 and Canadian Pradeeban Peter-Paul 4-3 in the round of 32. His today’s opponent in the quarters is Almaraj Anthony Arputharaj of India.

Nikandros Stylianou finished fifth in the men’s Pole Vault with a 5.25 metre clearance. He went over this height on his first attempt and then failed to clear 5.40 in three attempts. Australian Steve Hooker won the gold in the event with a 5.60 meters vault, while Steven Lewis of England finished second with the same height but with more attempts.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.