Archers, wrestlers shine as India continue golden run at South Asian Games

Guwahati: 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 host country here today. While compound archers scooped all five gold medals on offer, wrestlers also annihilated competition to grab five yellow metals out of six. [caption id=“attachment_2617530” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AFP[/caption] Courtesy the strong showing by them, India continued to top the medals’ tally with a count of 72, which includes 48 gold, 18 silver and six bronze medals. Sri Lanka held on to the second spot with 59 medals (11 gold, 25 silver and 23 bronze). Pakistan was a distant third in the tally with 29 medals (4 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze) in their kitty. The golden run began early today for India in Shillong with compound archers grabbing all the five gold medals on offer along with two silver medals to rule the roost. The Indian archers topped the medals chart ahead of Bangladesh, who finished with two silver and two bronze medals and third placed Bhutan (0-1-1). The compound trio of Purvasha Shende, Jyoti Vennam and Lily Chanu Paonam started the gold rush for India downing their opponents from Bangladesh 228-217 in the morning session. Purvasha went on to win a hat-trick of gold medals as she also emerged the individual champion and bagged her third in mixed pair event with Asian Games team gold and individual silver medallist Abhishek Verma. After a near perfect round in the team event where he shot 15 perfect 10s out of a possible 16, Verma lost to compatriot Rajat Chauhan by two points in the individual final as both of them returned with two gold medals each. Ranked world No.5, Chauhan lived up to his reputation, edging out Verma 144-142 to emerge the individual champion in a thrilling men’s final in the afternoon session. In the squash competition, star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women’s individual event after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clash. op seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recovered from one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7 at the brand new squash facility at the R G Baruah Sports Complex here. With Chinappa’s gold, India has so far won three medals in squash with Sourav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu having grabbed a bronze each after losing to their Pakistani opponents yesterday. On the wrestling mat in Guwahati, Indian grapplers simply destroyed their opponents to finish with 14 gold medals out of a total 16 on offer. Despite being represented by a second string team, the home wrestlers proved too strong for their South Asian neighbours as they grabbed five more gold out of six on offer, besides a silver, on the concluding day today at the R G Baruah Sports Complex. Indian wrestlers thus ended their campaign with a whopping 14 gold and two silver. India won gold in all the eight women’s categories, while their men counterparts won six gold and two silver. Shilpi Sheoran began the gold count for India as she beat Farzana Sharmin of Bangladesh in the women’s 63kg final bout. Rajani and Nikki made it an all-gold affair for Indian women in the Games by defeating Bangladesh’s Shirin Sultana and W Weerasingh of Sri Lanka, respectively in the 69kg and 75kg categories. Among men, Mausam Khatri and Pardeep won a gold each in 97kg and 74kg respectively, while Mandeep had to settle for a silver as he lost to Pakistan’s Zaman Avwar in the 125kg final bout. In the 2010 edition, India had won three gold and a silver in men’s wrestling while Pakistan had won two gold and a silver. There was no stopping the weightlifters either as India grabbed all the four gold medal today in yet another overwhelmingly dominating performance. Victor Abilash Christopher (men’s 105kg), Pardeep (men’s 94kg), VIkas Thakur (men’s 85kg) and Kavita Devi (women’s 75kg) won a gold each as the home lifters ran away with all the honours. With the four gold today, India have so far won 11 gold medals (6 in men and 5 women). 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 on the third and penultimate day of the cycling competitions here. In women’s 40km team time trial final, the Indian quartet of T Bidyaluxmi, Rutuja Satpute, G Manisha and Chaoba Devi bagged the gold in a time of 59:23.5secs. Sri Lanka and Pakistan took the silver and bronze respectively. In men’s 70km team time trial final, the home team of Arvind Panwar, Manjeet Singh, Deepak Kumar Rahi and Manohar Lal Bishnoi took the gold in one hour 29 minutes and 37.840 seconds. Medals trickled in from wushu competition in Shillong as well with M Punshiva Meitei clinching a gold medal and Swachacha Jatav bagging a silver in the men’s and women’s Nanquan events. India now have two gold, one silver and one bronze in their kitty. However, after two days of domination in the pool, India today shared the spoils with Sri Lanka in the swimming competition. Both India and Sri Lanka won three gold medals each during the day, while Bangladesh won one. In all, India won three gold, four silver and one bronze. Sandeep Sejwal, who has already won two gold medals for India at SAG, added another gold to his kitty, by winning the 50m breaststroke for men with a new Games record of 28.79 seconds. V Malvika won the women’s 800m freestyle event while P S Madhu bagged the third gold for India by winning the 100m backstroke for men. PTI