Swimmers, athletes join the party

Guwahati, February 9 

India plundered most of the gold medals on offer for the fourth successive day with the swimmers, archers and track-and-field athletes putting in a dominating performance. Continuing their terrific show, the Indian athletes took their overall medal count to 124, including 78 gold, 36 silver and 10 bronze medals. Holding on to the distant second spot were Sri Lanka with 87 medals, including 17 gold, 37 silver and 33 bronze medals.

The most stunning performance of the day came from the swimmers, who swept seven gold medals followed by track-and-field athletes and archers. The archers won all five gold medals, while the athletes also won the same number of gold along with six silver and three bronze.

In the last three days, Sri Lanka had been offering some resistance but today the local favourites ruled the roost at the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatics Complex here.

Saurabh Sangvekar started the gold rush, setting a new Games record of 3 minutes 58.84 seconds (3:58.84) to win the 400m freestyle. V Malvika secured the gold in 400m freestyle for women, setting a new meet record of 4:30.08 minutes. Sajan Prakash then bagged India’s third gold of the day, and his fourth, by winning the 200m butterfly with a new record time of 2:03.02. Damini Gowda then won gold in the 200m butterfly in yet another Games record time of 2:21.12. PS Madhu, in 50m backstroke for men, also set a new record of 26.86 seconds. The gold in 50m backstroke for women was clinched by Kimiko Raheem of Sri Lanka, setting a new record of 29.75 seconds.

Archers hit bull’s eye

Before the swimmers, the archers had set the tone in the morning session in Shillong, winning all five gold medals up for grabs to take their overall count to 10 gold and four silver.

The trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayala Devi shot below par scores but it was enough to blank their misfiring Sri Lankan opponents 6-0 to open the account in recurve category. The men’s team of Tarundeep Rai, Gurucharan Besra and Jayanta Talukdar followed suit with a 5-1 win over their Lankan rivals in the summit clash.

India’s mixed pair of Rai and Deepika added a second gold medal to the kitty, India’s third overall in recurve, with a 6-0 cakewalk against the Bangladeshi duo of Sojeb Shiek and Beauty Ray.

Athletes shine 

The story was no different in the track-and-field arena. Rio Olympics-bound shot-putter Manpreet Kaur stole the limelight as Indians pocketed five gold medals on the opening day of the event.

India won five gold, six silver and three bronze medals in the nine events held at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium. Sri Lanka gave a tough fight to the home athletes by winning four gold, one silver and five bronze.

Kaur bagged the first gold of the day for India by winning the women’s shot put event with a throw of 17.94m. Her namesake, Manpreet junior, got the silver with a throw of 15.94m. Neeraj Kumar bagged the second gold for India in the men’s hammer throw with an effort of 66.14m. Mayookha Johny took the gold in women’s long jump by clearing 6.43m. — PTI 

Sag Updates

Inderjeet pulls out 

Rio Olympics-bound shot-putter Inderjeet Singh has pulled out of the South Asian Games due to a back injury. Reigning Asian champion Inderjeet, who has already qualified for the Olympics, has been training in the United States with the government funding him under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme. “It’s very painful not being able to represent my country in the SAG due to a strained back. As I am under recovery, I can assure that I will try my best to live up to expectations in my next competition,” he wrote in his facebook profile.

B’ball scrapped 

Left red-faced after FIBA de-recognised the sport from the 12th South Asian Games due to government and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) interference, the organisers decided to cancel the basketball event. “We tried to sort out the issues and suggested different options like going ahead with the event and give away the medals without the results going into record books. It will not be held now,” said Games Chief Executive Officer Injeti Srinivas.

Bangla official threatened? 

Bangladesh women's football team media manager Ahsan Ahmed has alleged that an Indian security official misbehaved with him on the sidelines of their 2-0 win over Maldives here today. “He used swear words and threatened to throw me out of the stadium. I asked him to cool down but he refused to budge. His tone was very rude,” said Ahmed. — Agencies