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  South Asian Games: No stopping India

South Asian Games: No stopping India

PTI
Published : Feb 9, 2016, 5:06 am IST
Updated : Feb 9, 2016, 5:06 am IST

Joshna Chinappa in action against Pakistan’s Maria Toorpaki Wazir in the women’s squash final at the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati on Monday. Chinappa won 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 to take the gold. (Photo: AFP )

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Joshna Chinappa in action against Pakistan’s Maria Toorpaki Wazir in the women’s squash final at the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati on Monday. Chinappa won 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 to take the gold. (Photo: AFP )

India’s might found no challenge in the 12th South Asian Games with the country’s archers, wrestlers and weightlifters clinching a majority of gold medals to ensure a third successive day of supremacy for the hosts here on Monday.

While the compound archers scooped all five gold medals on offer, wrestlers annihilated the competition to grab five yellow metals out of six. India thus continue to top the medals’ tally with a count of 74, which includes 49 gold, 19 silver and six bronze medals.

Sri Lanka held on to the second spot with 62 medals (11 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze). Pakistan were a distant third in the tally with 29 medals (4 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze) in their kitty.

The golden run for India began in Shillong with the compound trio of Purvasha Shende, Jyoti Vennam and Lily Chanu Paonam downing Bangla-desh 228-217. Purvasha went on to win a hat-trick of golds with the individual champion and the mixed pairs event with Abhishek Verma.

Verma lost to compatriot Rajat Chauhan by two points in the individual final as both returned with two gold medals each. Chauhan edged out Verma 144-142 to emerge the individual champion in the afternoon session.

In squash, star player Joshna Chinappa clinched gold in the women’s individual event beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in an ill-tempered summit clash.

Top seed Chinappa recovered from a set down to beat Wazir 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7. On the mat in Guwahati, home wrestlers grabbed five more gold out of six on offer, besides a silver, on the concluding day.

Shilpi Sheoran began the gold count beating Farzana Sharmin of Bangladesh in the women’s 63kg final bout. Rajani and Nikki then defeated Bangladesh’s Shirin Sultana and W. Weerasingh of Sri Lanka, respectively in the 69kg and 75kg categories.

Among men, Mausam Khatri and Pardeep clinched a gold each in 97kg and 74kg respectively, while Mandeep took the silver losing to Pakistan’s Zaman Avwar in the 125kg final bout.

There was no stopping the weightlifters either as Victor Christopher (men’s 105kg), Pardeep (men’s 94kg), Vikas Thakur (men’s 85kg) and Kavita Devi (women’s 75kg) won a gold each to run away with all the honours.

The cyclists also brushed aside competition for a third day on the trot to win both the gold medals. The Indian teams won the women’s 40km time trial and men’s 70km time trial events to take their medal count to five gold, three silver and one bronze.

In hockey, the men’s team went down 1-2 to Pakistan in a closely-fought game, while the women notched up their second win, thrashing Sri Lanka 12-1.

The shuttlers, led by K. Srikanth and P.V. Sindhu opened their account with two gold medals in the men’s and women’s team events, downing their opponents from Sri Lanka.

In the pool, Sandeep Sejwal added a third gold to his kitty by winning the 50m breaststroke with a new Games record of 28.79 seconds. V. Malvika clinched the women’s 800m freestyle event while P.S. Madhu won the 100m backstroke for men.

Meanwhile, paddlers G. Sathiyan, Anthony Amalraj, Manika Batra and Mouma Das stormed into the semi-finals for a prospective all-India finals.