India continue to dominate SAF Games
India continue to dominate SAF Games
With a day left for the competition to end, India ruled the medals chart with 107 gold, 60 silver and 38 bronze.

Colombo: The Indian gold bounty merrily crossed the hundred mark, but the country's competitors were upstaged by the host nation in the showpiece track and field events on the ninth day of the 10th South Asian Games in Colombo on Saturday.

With a day left for the competition to end, save the marathon scheduled for Monday, India ruled the medals chart with 107 gold, 60 silver and 38 bronze medals.

Pakistan were second with 37-40-60 while Sri Lanka (30-64-72) followed in third place.

It rained gold for India in judo, while athletics, archery, squash, karate and shooting also boosted the tally.

The host nation's competitors asserted their rising supremacy in athletics with a five gold while the Indians added three more to their kitty at the Sugathadasa outdoor stadium.

For India, Francis Sagairaj won the men's 800m race, while Pinki Pramanik took her gold tally to three by claiming top honours in the women's 800m and then being part of the triumphant women's 4x400m relay squad.

But the day belonged to the Sri Lankan athletes, who pocketed gold in the 100m men's and women's events.

Comeback star Susanthika Jayasinghe clinched her third gold of the meet when she won the 100m, albeit with a poor timing of 11.32 seconds.

The men's athletic showpiece event saw Surendra leave the rest of the field behind to claim the gold, clocking 10.51 seconds.

An under-strength India was not to be left behind.

In men's 800m, Francis Sagairaj finished atop the podium with an effort of 1 minute 50.23 seconds.

In women's 800m, Pinki Pramanik confirmed her status as the athlete to watch out for in Asian Games after snatching the gold with a time of 2:03.81 seconds.

The Indians also got gold in women's 4X400m relay with Poovamma, Sinijose, S Shanthi and Pinki Pramanik clocking 3:38.01 seconds.

Putting up an impressive performance, Indian judokas bagged five out of the six gold medals on offer in the judo arena.

PAGE_BREAK

Fetching the gold for India were Anil Kumar (90kg) and Solanki Yashpal (100kg) in men's section and Chongtham Ch. Jina (70 kg), L Brojeshori Devi (57kg) and Garima Chaudhary (63 kg) in women's section.

Indian archers bagged the gold medal in both men's and women's team recurve events to make a clean sweep of the medals in the event.

The men's team event saw Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai, Rahul Bannerjee and N Ravinder outhsine Bhutan 220-196 to bag the gold.

The women's team event also proved to be a one-sided affair with the Indian team of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi and Sushma conquering Bhutan 211-192 in the final.

In squash, the Indian women's team bagged the yellow metal, winning their summit clash with Sri Lanka.

Singles gold medallist Joshna Chinappa beat Tehani Guruge 9-5 9-2 9-2 before Dipika Pallikal, the beaten singles finalist, overcame the challenge of Nirasha Guruge 9-4 8-10 9-4 9-4.

In karate, India's S R Gharu picked the gold in 53kg women's Kumite.

Two more gold came from the ranges in the men's 50m Rifle 3 Position where Indian shooters -- Imran Khan and Manoj Kumar -- won the individual gold and silver respectively before teaming up with Sushil Ghaley to pick the team gold.

The team event saw the Indians set a new Games record with a score of 3407. They erased the earlier mark of 3405, achieved also by India, in 2004 Games in Islamabad.

India, however, finished out the medal bracket in football, going down 0-2 to lowly Nepal.

What's your reaction?

Comments

https://terka.info/assets/images/user-avatar-s.jpg

0 comment

Write the first comment for this!