South Asian Games: Indian juggernaut rolls on

Shooter Sameresh Jung en route to the gold medal in the individual men’s 25m center fire pistol competition in Guwahati on Thursday. (Photo: PTI)

The star-studded shooting squad was expectedly on target, while the track-and-field athletes continued their golden run as India held on firmly to the top spot by remaining way ahead of the competition on the sixth day of the 12th South Asian Games here on Thursday.

Hitting a double century of medals, the Indian contingent has so far garnered 237, including 139 gold, 78 silver and 20 bronze.

Consistent at second place were Sri Lanka with 151 medals — 25 gold, 50 silver and 76 bronze in all. Pakistan occupied the third spot with 70 medals — seven gold, 22 silver and 41 bronze.

The athletes once again were the biggest contributors to India’s gold haul picking up seven on the day.

Suman Devi (women’s javelin), veteran Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump), Om Prakash Karhana (men’s shot put), P.U. Chitra (women’s 1,500m), Ajoy Kumar Saroj (men’s 1,500m), Jauna Murmu (women’s 400m hurdles) and Dharun Ayyasamy (men’s 400m hurdles) were the ones to strike gold in the track and field arena.

Shooters grab five golds India dominated the shooting ranges too grabbing all five gold medals on offer.

However, Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang had to be content with a silver in the men’s individual 50m rifle prone event.

‘Gold finger’ Samaresh Jung rolled back the years as he clinched gold in the men’s individual 25m center fire pistol event at the Kahilipara Shooting Range here.

Narang was leading till the fifth series but could not sustain it till the end.

Compatriot Chain Singh caught up with Narang in the sixth series before running away with the gold. Chain Singh shot a total of 184.1, while Narang had 183.1. Umar Siddique of Pakistan took the bronze.

Later, the Indian team comprising Chain Singh, Narang and Surendra Singh Rathod, won the gold in the 50m rifle prone event with a total of 1871.5. Pakistan and Sri Lanka took silver and bronze, respectively.

In the men’s 25m center fire pistol, Jung beat the likes of Pemba Tamang and Vijay Kumar to take gold.

Jung shot a total of 580 points in a tough field.

Tamang (579) claimed silver while Vijay got the bronze after a shoot off as three marksmen ended at 577 points.

The 45-year-old Jung said: “I could not qualify for the Rio Olympics and there are no more qualification events now. I will look ahead for the next Olympics.”

Indians swept the individual event of the women’s 50m rifle prone event and also won the team gold.

There was slight disappointment on the football field though where the champion Indian women’s team was held to yet another goalless draw, this time by a resilient Nepal who thus confirmed their final berth for a second successive time.

Meanwhile in the men’s hockey, the hosts would look to make amends and turn the tables on Pakistan when the two sides meet in the summit clash on Friday.