PTI/IANS
GUWAHATI, FEBRUARY 10
India’s remarkable domination went uncontested for the fifth successive day as shooters, wushu players and track-and-field athletes annihilated competition to sweep most of the gold up for grabs on the fifth day of the 12th South Asian Games here today.
With a whopping 186 medals, including 114 gold, 59 silver and 13 bronze medals, in the kitty, India sat pretty at the top of the table. Following the hosts in the second place were Sri Lanka with an overall count of 126 (21 gold, 44 silver and 61 bronze medals).
The blue-riband event of athletics was expected to trigger gold rush for India and it went pretty much that way with athletes contributing 7 gold medals to the tally today.
Neeraj Chopra (men’s javelin throw), Arokya Rajiv (men’s 400m), Arjun (discus throw), J Surendhar (men’s 110m hurdles), Gayathry (women’s 100m hurdles), Ankit Sharma (men’s long jump) and Sahana Kumari (women’s high jump) were the ones to clinch top honours.
Earlier, the Indians dominated the pool once again to pick 5 gold on the final day of the swimming competition to stamp their authority in the event.
Seasoned swimmer Veerdhawal Khade clinched his first gold of the Games by winning the men’s 50m butterfly event. Other gold winners for India were Shraddha Sudhir (200m medley for women), Jyotsna Pansare (50m butterfly for women) and both the men’s and women’s 4×100 medley relay teams.
In total, India won five gold, three silver and one bronze on the final day of the swimming event.
Khade clinched the gold in 50m butterfly for men in a Games record of 24.54 seconds. The Indian men’s 4x100m medley team also set a new Games record of 3:49.78 while winning the gold. Sri Lanka was initially declared the winner of the women’s 4x100m medley relay event while India took the silver.
However, the Lankan team was disqualified after one of their swimmers made a false start during the change of legs, leading to the upgradation India’s silver into gold.
Silver winners for India were Sanu Debnath (200m medley for men), Anshul Kothari (50m butterfly for men) and Avantika Chavan (50m butterfly for women), while Shivani Kataria got a bronze in 100m freestyle for women.
In Shillong, India clinched an overwhelming 8 gold, 1 silver and two bronze medals on the final day of the wushu competition.
India made a clean sweep winning seven gold and five silver medals in the women’s doubles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles, and men’s and women’s singles events of table tennis competitions.
National champions Anthony Amalraj and Manika Batra claimed three gold medals each.
Amalraj won the men’s singles after G. Sathiyan conceded the match due to a thumb injury.
The bronze medals were awarded to Sri Lanka’s men Rohan Sirisena and Udaya Ranasinghe as the losing semi-finalists.
In the women’s singles table tennis final, five-time former national champion Mouma Das beat the reigning national champion Manika after winning 13-15, 12-10, 7-11, 15-13 11-8, 11-13, 11-9 in a marathon battle. Sri Lanka’s women paddlers Ishara Madhurangi and Ruvini Kannangura were awarded bronze as the losing semi-finalists.
Manika earlier won the women’s doubles crown with Pooja Sahasrabudhe. They defeated of Mouma and K Shamini 11-7, 13-11, 11-5. Bronze was won by Nepal’s Nabita Shrestha and Elina Maharjan and Ishara Madhurangi and Erandi Warusawithana of Sri Lanka.
In the men’s doubles final, G Sathiyan and Devesh Karia beat Amalraj and Sanil Shetty 11-1, 11-8, 11-6 to win gold. Both bronzes in the men’s category went to Sri Lankan pairs Rohan Sirisena, Chameern Ginge and Udaya Ranasinghe, Nirmala Jayasinghe.
