Maninder Kaur (centre) attempts a goal against Bangladesh in their women’s handball final at the South Asian Games in Guwahati on Monday. India won 45-25. (Photo: PTI)
Maninder Kaur (centre) attempts a goal against Bangladesh in their women’s handball final at the South Asian Games in Guwahati on Monday. India won 45-25. (Photo: PTI)
India’s boxers hardly broke a sweat to scoop all the seven gold medals up for grabs, while the shooters ended their campaign with an outstanding tally of 25 golds in the 12th South Asian Games here on Monday.
On the penultimate day of competitions, the home contingent continued to be perched at the top with 289 medals (173 gold, 86 silver and 30 bronze).
Sri Lanka were second on the table with 174 medals (25 gold, 59 silver and 90 bronze, followed by Pakistan (90 medals, 11 gold, 33 silver and 47 bronze).
Besides, the boxers and shooters’ good show, the women’s football team also took top honours, defeating Nepal 4-0 in the summit clash.
The boxers were the stars of the show on the day in Shillong with all the seven men in the final notching up mostly comprehensive victories.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist L. Devendro Singh (49kg) began the gold rush when he thrashed Pakistan’s Mohib Ulla 2-1.
Next man in was 35-year-old Madan Lal (52kg) and he too prevailed over another Pakistani opponent in Mohammad Syed Asif to be adjudged 3-0 winner.
World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva Thapa (56kg) was the fan favourite on the day and he prevailed over Sri Lankan W. Ruwan Thilina.
Manoj Kumar was also adjudged winner in an unanimous 3-2 decision against Dinidu Sapara-madu of Sri Lanka in the 64kg category.
CWG medallist Mandeep Jangra (69kg) survived a closely-fought contest against Afghanistan’s Rahemi Alla Dad to win 3-0.
In Guwahati, shooters made yet another clean sweep to sign off with a staggering 25 out of 26 gold medals on offer.
Rio Olympics bound Gurpreet Singh shot gold in the men’s individual 25m rapid fire pistol with a total of 28 hits on target, while Sweta Singh grabbed another in the women’s individual 10m air pistol event with 194.4.
Another Olympics quota holder Heena Sidhu had to be content with the silver in the women’s 10m air pistol event with a total score of 192.5.
In kabaddi, defending champions India maintained their supremacy clinching gold in both men’s and women’s events, while the hosts claimed a hat-trick of gold in taekwondo, but still finished second behind toppers Afghanistan.
