IANS
GUWAHATI, FEBRUARY 8
India’s might found no challenge in the 12th South Asian Games with the country’s archers, wrestlers and weightlifters clinching a majority of gold medals to ensure a third successive day of supremacy for the host country here today. While compound archers scooped all five gold medals on offer, wrestlers also annihilated competition to grab five yellow metals out of six.
Courtesy the strong showing by them, India continued to top the medals’ tally with a count of 72, which includes 48 gold, 18 silver and six bronze medals.
Sri Lanka held on to the second spot with 59 medals (11 gold, 25 silver and 23 bronze). Pakistan was a distant third in the tally with 29 medals (4 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze) in their kitty.
The golden run began early today for India in Shillong with compound archers grabbing all the five gold medals on offer along with two silver medals to rule the roost.The Indian archers topped the medals chart ahead of Bangladesh, who finished with two silver and two bronze medals and third placed Bhutan (0-1-1). The compound trio of Purvasha Shende, Jyoti Vennam and Lily Chanu Paonam started the gold rush for India downing their opponents from Bangladesh 228-217 in the morning session.
Purvasha went on to win a hat-trick of gold medals as she also emerged the individual champion and bagged her third in mixed pair event with Asian Games team gold and individual silver medallist Abhishek Verma.
After a near perfect round in the team event where he shot 15 perfect 10s out of a possible 16, Verma lost to compatriot Rajat Chauhan by two points in the individual final as both of them returned with two gold medals each.
Ranked world No.5, Chauhan lived up to his reputation, edging out Verma 144-142 to emerge the individual champion in a thrilling men’s final in the afternoon session.
In the squash competition, star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women’s individual event after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clash.
Chinappa beats Pakistani rival, clinches squash gold Star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women’s individual squash after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clash to make up for India’s disappointment in the men’s event here today.
Top seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recovered from one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7 at the brand new squash facility at the R G Baruah Sports Complex here.
With Chinappa’s gold, India has so far won three medals in squash with Sourav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu having grabbed a bronze each after losing to their Pakistani opponents yesterday. Chinappa, one of the few top Indian players to have opted to play in the SAG, thus gave some solace to the team management after men’s players failed to reach the final.
The women’s final match had all the drama which was witnessed during the men’s semifinals with Chinappa expressing unhappiness to the match officials with the “aggressive” play of Wazir who was seen as trying to be a bit physical with the top-ranked Indian.
Wazir, ranked 50th in the world, won the first set 12-10 after a neck-and-neck contest but she got injured midway in the second set at 7-7 as blood came out of her left eyebrow region after contact with Chinappa and play was stopped for a while to get her treated.
The Pakistani was immediately given first aid and she resumed play after a few minutes. It looked like the break gave Chinappa time to ponder on her game and the glamorous Indian started dominating the match from there on.
Wazir looked tentative just after coming from her injury break and Chinappa did not take much time to take the second set 11-7 and level scores at 1-1.
The third set saw Chinappa taking a 5-2 lead but Wazir came back with some superb shots to make it 6-6 and then 8-6.
By then there was tension among the crowd at the stands, but a calm Chinappa just went about her job and brought the score to 9-9 and then 10-9 before taking the set.
In the fourth and final set, Wazir gave some fight initially but later frittered away as Chinappa won it 11-7 to give India the first gold in squash in this edition.
