South Asian Games: Shooters, Athletes Ensure India's Domination Continue
India remain unchallenged at the South Asian Games by winning gold in majority of events.
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. (Read More in Other Sports)
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.
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 five gold on the final day of the swimming competition to stamp their authority in the event.
Seasoned swimmer Virdhawal 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 4x100 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 eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals on the final day of the wushu competition.
Having already claimed three gold, a silver and a bronze, India finished their campaign in wushu with 11 gold, two silver and three bronze at the Rising Sports Complex in Latikor on the outskirts of the city.
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Shooters on target
Indian shooters grabbed six medals, including three gold, on the opening day of competitions.
Chandela easily shot down the gold in her pet event of women's 10m air rifle with a total score of 209.00 points, while compatriots Elizabeth Susan Koshy and Pooja Ghatkar won the silver and bronze as Indian markswomen swept the medals at the Kahilipara Shooting Range here.
In men's 50m pistol event, however, Indians failed to win the gold with Om Prakash -- who shot 187.3 points -- bagging a silver and Olympic-bound Prakash Nanjappa finishing outside podium at fourth. The gold was won by Bangladesh's Sakil Ahmed, who shot 187.6 points.
India also pocketed a gold each in men's 50m pistol team event and women's 10m air rifle team event.
The story was no different on the tennis courts in Guwahati with the Indians picking up all the gold medals on offer on the fourth and penultimate day of the event.
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Ankita Rana add to India's tennis charge
The local favourites won gold in women's singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles to completely dominate the event at the All Assam Tennis Association Grounds.
The final matches were all-Indian affairs, showing the complete domination by the home players.
In the men's doubles, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Vijay Prasanth defeated Divij Sharan and Sanam Singh 6-3, 6-4 to give the country the first gold and silver of the day.
Ankita Rana then won the second gold for Indian in women's singles in another all-Indian final. Raina easily beat Prerna Bhambri 6-1, 6-0 in the final.
Ankita then paired up with Divij Sharan to win gold in mixed doubles after beating another Indian combine of Sanam Singh and Prarthana Thombre 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final.
In the table tennis event being held in Shillong, reigning national champions Anthony Amalraj and Manika Batra clinched a hat-trick of gold medals each, helping India make another clean sweep by winning a maximum seven gold and five silver medals to sign off in resounding fashion.
Amalraj beat G Sathiyan, who conceded the match due to injury.
Five-time former national champion Mouma Das denied reigning national champion Manika a fourth gold after winning in a marathon battle.
The tall Manika earlier in the day added the women's doubles crown with Pooja Sahasrabudhe prevailing over the more-experienced pair of Mouma and K Shamini.
In the men's doubles final G Sathiyan and Devesh Karia defeated Amalraj and Sanil Shetty for the second gold at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Complex.