India mine gold from pool and track on day 10
Pugilists and volleyball teams sparkle
India dished out their best performance grabbing 42 medals, including 21 gold, to end the penultimate day with a total haul of 170 medals in the 11th South Asian Games here on Monday.
India won 21 gold, 13 silver and seven bronze, their 7 haul on a single day in the Games, with most medals coming from swimming and track and field events.
Indian swimmers concluded their campaign at the 11th South Asian Games in style, winning four more gold medals with a new meet record and took their overall tally to 25 here on Monday.
India also bagged a silver to sign off from the event with a haul of 16 gold, seven silver and two bronze medals. Indian swimmers reigned supreme in the pool in 16 of the 19 competitions held.
In the 50M breaststroke, Arjun Jaya Prakash shattered the 30.43S record held by Mohammad Shahajahan Ali Rony of Bangladesh as he clocked 30.04 seconds en route to the gold medal. Having made a national meet record in the 50M butterfly, Shubha Chittaranjan picked her second gold medal when she finished first in the 50M freestyle with a timing of 27.98S. India had a 1-2 finish in the same event with Sneha Sambandam (28.67S) picking the silver finishing ahead of Sri Lanka’s Madhawee Kaushalya Kalurachchilage (29.78S).
The Indian swimmers reigned supreme in both men’s and women’s 4x100M medley relay events. The women quartet of Fariha Zaman, Gauri Desai, Richa Mishra and Talasha Prabhu clocked 3:41.45 for the medley relay gold as Sri Lanka (4:52.24) and Bangladesh (4:55.94) finished second and third respectively. A star studded men’s team comprising Veerdhawal Khade, Rehan Poncha, Aaron D’Souza and Arjun Jaya Prakash clocked 3:58.76 to win gold.
India stamped their supremacy over Sri Lanka in track and field events with nine medals, including four gold.
Sri Lanka finished second with seven gold, six silver and five bronze, besides also having the fastest man in the Games, Shehan Abeypitiya (10.46S) winner of the men’s 100M in their ranks. India’s Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (10.56) was second while Liaqat Ali (10.63 sec) of Pakistan finished third.
Pakistan’s Naseem Hamid became the fastest woman of the Games by winning the 100M gold in 11.81S. Sri Lanka took the second-third spots through Pramila Priyadarshini (11.93) and Achala Shalika Dias (12.12).
In 4X400M relay the Indian men pipped the Sri Lankans in an exciting finish relay race at the Bangabandhu National Stadium tracks here.
The Indians clocked 3:08.62s for the gold, while the Sri Lankans timed 3:08.94s In the women’s 4X400M, the Indian quartet of Jauna Murmu, Ashwini AC, Mary Thomas Tiana and Priyanka Pawar clinched gold by clocking 3:38.62 ahead of Sri Lankan quartet of Tharuja Kumari, Menka Wickeramasing and Ratna Kumari (3:44.81s).
India had a gold-silver finish in the men’s high jump with Harishankar Roy and Nikhil Chittrarasu bagging the top two places. Roy jumped 2.16M while Chittarasu cleared 2.13M. Long distance runner Sunil Kumar earned India the fourth gold when he won 1500M race with a timing of 14:23.83. India also bagged the silver through Mohammad Yunus (14:24.22). In the women’s long jump, India’s Reshmi Bose (6.09) and Prajusha MA (5.96) bagged the silver and bronze respectively. Chamali Dilrukshi (6.20) of Sri Lanka clinched gold.
India’s women’s soccer team beat Nepal 3-1 in the final. In boxing, India’s male pugilists Amandeep Singh (48 kg), Suranjoy Singh (51 kg) and Chhote Lal (57 kg) won the yellow metal. Amandeep defeated Mohammed Arif of Afghanistan 7-2, Suranjoy outclassed Mohammed Wazim of Pakistan 11-4 and Chhote Lal beat local boy Mohammed Fayzal Mullah 6-2. Indian men defended their volleyball gold medal defeating Pakistan 23-25, 25-23, 25-14, 25-16 in the final. Sandeep Kundu beat Ravindra Rajapaksha of Sri Lanka to clinch the title in men’s over-87kg category, while Indians rounded off their Taekwondo campaign with a gold, one silver and two bronze.
India are all set to reign supreme in table tennis as they picked three gold and three silver and assured themselves the top two places in men’s and women’s singles titles.
