South Asian Games: Track and field stars swell medal tally

Members of the 4x100m medley women’s team pose after claiming the top position ahead of Pakistan and Bangladesh in Guwahati on Wednesday. — PTI

India’s domination went uncontested for the fifth successive day as shooters, wushu players and athletes annihilated competition to sweep most of the gold up for grabs on the fifth day of the 12th South Asian Games here on Wednesday.

With a whopping 194 medals, including 117 gold, 61 silver and 16 bronze medals, in the kitty, India sat pretty at the top of the table. Following the hosts were Sri Lanka with an overall count of 133 (24 gold, 46 silver and 63 bronze medals).

Athletics was expected to trigger a gold rush for India and it went pretty much that way with seven gold medals added to the tally. Jumper Mayookha Johny led hosts’ domination with her second title while Neeraj Chopra (javelin), Arokya Rajiv (400m), Arjun (discus throw), J. Surendhar (110m hurdles), Gayathry (wom-en’s 100m hurdles), Ankit Sharma (men’s long jump) and Sahana Kumari (wom-en’s high jump) were others to clinch top honours.

Earlier, the Indians dominated the pool once again to pick five golds on the final day of the swimming competition.

Seasoned swimmer Veerdhawal Khade clinched his first gold of the Games by winning the men’s 50m butterfly event. Other 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 a Games record of 24.54 seconds. The men’s 4x100m medley team also set a new Games record of 3:49.78 while winning the gold.

Sri Lanka were initially declared winners of the women’s 4x100m medley relay event while India took the silver. However, the Lankan team were disqualified after one of their swimmers made a false start during the change of legs, leading to the upgradation India’s silver to gold.

The silver winners 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 the 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.

In men’s football, India bounced back from their opening loss as they prevailed over the Maldives 3-2 to reach the semi-finals. A double strike by Udanta Singh and a Pritam Kotal goal ensured an Indian win in a topsy-turvy match.

Tennis sweep In tennis, the home players ruled the roost picking up all the gold medals on offer.

India won the gold in the women’s singles, the men’s doubles and the mixed doubles to completely dominate the event. All the final matches were all-Indian affairs.

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 in the women’s singles defeating Prerna Bhambri 6-1, 6-0.

Ankita then paired up with Divij Sharan to win the mixed doubles gold beating Sanam Singh and Prarthana Thombre 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final.

Shooters shine The shooting range in Guwahati was also dominated by the hosts with the Rio Olympics-bound Apur-vi Chandela leading the charge. The shooters grabbed six medals, including three gold, on the opening day of competitions. Chandela easily shot down the gold in the women’s 10m air rifle with 209.00 points, while compatriots Elizabeth Susan Koshy and Pooja Ghatkar took the silver and bronze.

In the men’s 50m pistol event, however, India failed to win the gold with Om Prakash bagging a silver. The gold was won by Bangladesh’s Sakil Ahmed, with 187.6 points.

In squash, the Indian men and women players covered themselves with golden glory by beating Pakistan in both the team finals. Meanwhile, rising star Ruthvika Shivani created the biggest upset stunning P.V. Sindhu to win the women’s singles gold me-dal with shuttlers bagging seven gold and five silver medals from the event.