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Guwahati, february 12
Long-distance runner Kavita Raut's qualification for the Rio Olympics was the icing on the cake on yet another impressive day for India with the hosts staying miles ahead of the rivals on Day 7 of the 12th South Asian Games (SAG).
Holding on to the top spot in the overall standings, India increased their tally to 249 — including 146 gold, 80 silver and 23 bronze medals.
Following the hosts at a distant second position was Sri Lanka with 157 medals. Pakistan remained steady at the third spot with 74 medals. It was the last day of competition in athletics and Raut made it special by qualifying for the Rio Olympics in the women's marathon.
Raut, 30, easily clinched the gold in 2 hours 38 minutes and 38 seconds to become the fourth Indian woman to qualify for the marathon event in the Rio Games. The qualification standard stands at 2:42:00s. OP Jaisha, Lalita Babbar and Sudha Singh have already qualified for the Olympics from this event. Nashik girl Raut is the lone athlete to have qualified for the Olympics in the tournament.
Rio-bound Nitender Singh Rawat took the men's marathon gold in 2:15:18 seconds in a close finish. Rawat was just a second ahead of Indrajith Cooray of Sri Lanka.
The men’s race had a dramatic ending and there was apparently some confusion over the finishing line inside the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium.
With today's haul of two gold and one bronze medal, India ended the athletics competition with 28 gold, 22 silver and 9 bronze medals, establishing their unrivalled superiority in the South Asian region.
Chain snatches gold
In shooting, Chain Singh grabed his second yellow metal. In fact, Indians ran away with all the four gold medals on offer today. The 26-year-old upstaged Gagan Narang to win the men's 10m air rifle event with a total score of 204.6 to add to his 50m rifle prone gold at the Kahilipara Shooting Range.
Narang, who had won a bronze in this event in the 2012 London Olympics, had to be content with a bronze. He had also lost the gold to Singh in the 50m rifle prone event yesterday. The trio of Singh, Narang and Imran Khan won the gold in the team event with a total score of 1863.4, while Bangladesh (1845.8) and Sri Lanka (1827.2) bagged the silver and bronze, respectively.
In the men's individual 20m standard pistol event, Neeraj Kumar bagged the gold with a total score of 569 while compatriots Gurpreet Singh (566) and Mahender Singh (563) took the silver and bronze, respectively.
The trio of Kumar, Gurpreet and Singh won the team gold with a total score of 1698, while Pakistan (1663) and Sri Lanka (1603) took the silver and bronze, respectively.
With boxers MC Mary Kom, L Sarita Devi and Shiva Thapa leading the charge, India will fancy all the 10 gold medals when the boxing competition gets underway tomorrow.
Kabaddi teams shine
India notched up back to back victories to remain on course for a semifinal spot in kabaddi. The Indian men's team defeated Nepal 47-23 before outplaying Sri Lanka 35-21. In the women's section, India thrashed Sri Lanka 37-13. — PTI
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