Indian cyclists bag 3 more medals
PTI
GUWAHATI, FEBRUARY 7
Indian cyclists today added a gold, a silver and a bronze medal to continue their dominance in the 12th South Asian Games here today.
Lidiyamol Sunny and Tongbram Manorama Devi bagged a gold and silver in women’s 40km criterium event on the second day of cycling events. Sunny accumulated 30 points to bag the top spot, while Manorama secured 26 points as Indians returned one-two for the third time in a row. Each competitor had to ride his cycle in eight laps of 5km each. Points are given according to the timing of the participants for each round and a total is calculated to determine the winner.
Sudarika Priyadarshani of Sri Lanka won the bronze with nine points.
In men’s 60km criterium event, India’s Pankaj Kumar bagged a bronze with 21 total points.
This time, Sri Lankans returned one-two with Jeevan Manjula Jayasinghe Silva winning the gold with 34 points and Naveen Ruchira Appuhamy bagging the silver with 24 points.
Yesterday, India had won a gold and a silver each in women’s 30km individual time trial and men’s 40km individual time trial events.
Sapna, Namdeo shine in Wushu
IANS
SHILLONG, FEBRUARY 7
India continued to dominate on the second day of the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) with Sapna Devi winning gold in the women's Wushu Taulu (Changquan) competition at the Rising Sun Sports Complex here on Sunday.
Sapna scored 9.45 points to emerge as the winner while the silver went to Susmita Tamang of Nepal who had a score of 8.72. Pakistan's Nazia Parvaiz took the bronze with a score of 6:30 points.
In the men's competition, Sri Lanka's P. L. H. Lakshan scored 8:86 to win the gold medal while Bijay Sinjali of Nepal earned silver with a score of 8:80 points. For India, Anjul Namdeo was forced to settle for bronze after scoring 8:66 points.
India eves pound Nepal 24-0
IANS
GUWAHATI, FEBRUARY 7
Indian women's hockey team began their campaign in the 12th South Asian Games with a 24-0 mauling of a hapless Nepal in a completely lopsided round robin league match, here today.
The opening match of the Games looked like a practice match with the Indian players scoring goal at will and the home team players appeared to be competing in registering their names in the score sheet at the Moullana Tayabullah Stadium.
Strikers Soundarya Yendala (15th, 52nd, 62nd and 64th minutes) and Poonam Barla (7th, 472nd, 43rd and 51st) scored the most with four strikes each.
Four players Rani (2nd, 46th and 48th), Jaspreet Kaur (4th, 35th and 56th), Neha Goyal (14th, 22nd and 70th) and Deepika (53rd, 62nd and 67th) scored three goals each while Gurjit Kaur (21st and 41st) and Preeti Dubey (23rd and 29th) got the other goals for India.
India, who have qualified for the Olympics after a gap of 36 years, are ranked 13th in the world while Nepal are not even included in ranking charts of the world governing body of the game, the FIH.
India play their next league match against Sri Lanka, another minnows, tomorrow. Only three teams are competing in the Games and India are expected to walk away with the gold.
Nepal continued their resurgence, beating the Maldives 2-0 in their 12th South Asian Games (SAG) women's football competition match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium here on Sunday.
Nepal's captain Anu Malik and Niru Thapa scored their second respective goals of the tournament. The strong Nepali squad could have drawn their first blood in the first minute of the match but were denied by a brilliant save by Maldivian goalkeeper Aishath Abdul Razzaq. Nepal attacked progressively and maintained bulk of the possession early on. Sabitra Bhandari came up with a crackling shot for Nepal in the 30th minute but her attempt was brilliantly saved by the Maldives custodian Aishath Abdul Razzaq.
Nepal's lead finally came in the 36th minute with Sabitra once again in action, feeding a calculated ball to Anu Lama for her second goal of the tournament. The forward line moved up the pitch following a counter attack as Nepal's skipper tapped in an easy goal from the pass.
The Maldives' first corner in the 44th minute resulted in a scramble inside the box that saw them come close to scoring at at least three times before the ball was cleared. At the break, Nepal maintained a narrow yet convincing goal lead.
After an impressive show against India in their last match, the Maldives once again defended well but the pressure on them appeared too much to handle.
In the 61st minute, Sabitra Bhandari produced an acrobatic bicycle kick that barely missed the target. The decisive goal came in the 89th minute when Niru Thapa scored following a lapse in the Maldivian defence, resulting in a comfortable 2-0 win.
"I am happy the way the team played. We could have scored many goals. Our target is to win and win gold," an elated coach of Nepal Dhruba Bahadur said at a match press conference after the match.
With two straight wins, Nepal will face the defending champions India on February 11.
"I saw the Indian-Maldives goalless match. I hope we will be able to win the against India but game is game nothing can be said off the ground," Dhruba said.
Nepali's skipper Anu Lama said, "We are not fearful against the Indian team but we will play our best to beat them. Our team plan is to defeat every team."
Crediting her two consecutive goals in two matches to her team, Lama said, "My plan is to score in every match but this can happen only with the team efforts."
Maldives coach Naoko Kawamoto said that she was not disappointed with the result as she believes her team has improved over the last game against India.
"I am not disappointed and the team has prevented Nepal from scoring many goals," Kawamoto said.
Asked about the Maldives strategy for next match against Bangladesh (February 9), Kawamoto said, "since the tough matches against India and Nepal are over now. We will be looking towards a more aggressive approach against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in their upcoming matches," she said.
