South Asian Games: Indian dominance continues

Shooters and swimmers hogged the limelight by sharing the spoils as India clinched eight out of 10 gold medals at stake on the eighth day to consolidate their dominance at the top with 67 medals in the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka on Friday.

India also bagged three silver and one bronze on Friday to aggregate 40 gold, 17 silver and 10 bronze medals so far.

Pakistan remained on second spot with 31 medals (six gold, 16 silver, nine bronze). Bangladesh are third with five gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze medals.

In a late match, India lost to Afghanistan in basketball final at the indoor complex at Dhanmondi to settle for silver. Incidentally, it was the first gold for Afghanistan. Bangladesh bagged the bronze.

Indian shooters continued their golden run sweeping all the four yellow metals at stake to assert their supremacy. They also bagged two silver medals.

Swimmers made a splash on the pool, bagging four out of the five gold on offer and one bronze and in the process shattered three SA Games records.

In hockey, India were held by Bangladesh 3-3 in their last round-robin match but they finished on top to set up a summit clash against Pakistan.

Pugilists began their campaign on a high when Amandeep Singh (light weight) and Suranjoy Singh Mayengbam (fly weight) ensured medals by reaching semifinals. The men's footballers, however, disappointed making a semi-final exit after losing to hosts Bangladesh by an 85th minute solitary goal.

Indian shooters swept all the four gold medals at stake on the fourth day of shooting competition today. They also bagged two silver to swell their total haul of medals in shooting to 15 gold, eight silver and four bronze.

Army shooter Om Prakash was the star Indian performer at the National Shooting Complex range at Gulshan, bagging four gold medals in 10m air pistol. On Thursday, he won a gold in 50m air pistol.

Indian 50m rifle prone shooter Surinder Singh Rathod also equalled the previous South Asian Games record score when he shot 593 for the gold medal.

Having bagged the top honours in individual and team 50m pistol, Om Prakash shot 679.2 in the 10m air pistol team en route to his third gold.

Another Indian Amit Kumar (673.7) bagged silver, while T D S Fernando of Sri Lanka (662.2) settled for bronze.

Om Prakash then struck his fourth gold when he, along with Amit and Sikandar Mann, shot a total of 1716 for the 10m air pistol team gold.

In the 50m rifle prone, Surinder Singh Rathod took the gold while Hariom Singh (591) earned India the second silver. Local lad Ramzan Ali (589) settled for bronze.

The trio of Rathod, Singh and Devesh Panwar (1766) had a top finish for the team gold, while Bangladesh (1746) and Sri Lanka (1745) had a close silver-bronze finish.

At National Swimming Complex at Mirpur, Indians pocketed four out of five gold on offer with three meet records by Shubha Chittaranjan (women's 50m butterfly), Sandeep Sejwal (men's 200m breaststroke) and Aaron D'Souza (men's 100m freestyle).

Beijing Olympian Rehan Poncha earned India the first swimming gold with a timing of 2:12.65s in the men's 200m Individual Medley.

India earned the second swimming gold in 50m butterfly when Shubha Chittaranjan finished way ahead of her nearest rival Miniruwani Shashiprabha Samarakoon of Sri Lanka.

The Indian clocked 29.49s eclipsing the previous SA Games record of 29.71, while the Lankan had an effort of 32.12s. Pakistan's Kiran Khan (32.18s) settled for the bronze medal.

Making it a hat-trick of gold in swimming, Olympian Sandeep Sejwal clocked 2:21.03s to shatter the previous best (2:27) by a big margin en route to gold in 200m breaststroke.

Local lad Mohammad Kamal Hossain (2:27.54) finished second, while India also bagged a bronze in the same event through Anoop Augustine who clocked 2:29.99s.

Aaron D'Souza then swam 100m freestyle with a timing of 52.48s to better the previous best of 52.71s for the fourth gold medal.

In the women's 50m breaststroke, India's Poorva Kiran Shetty disappointed finishing fifth in a field of eight.

In basketball, India lost to Afghanistan 64-65 in a thrilling match, which went down the wire. For Afghanistan, it was their first gold in the Games. Trailing 35-44 at half-time, Indians recovered well in the second half and took a 63-62 lead before Jagdeep Singh faltered to dunk twice as the Afghans clinched the issue.

In boxing, India had a fine start with both the pugilists making it to the semifinals. In light flyweight (48kg), Amandeep Singh knocked down Chaminda Tennakoon 10-3.

Suranjoy Singh beat Mohammad Ohiduzzaman of Bangladesh 9-1 in fly -weight (51kg) to make it to the semi-finals.

Led by Pune FC striker Jeje Lalpekhula, Indian men's football team had a miserable outing against Bangladesh who scored through Tawhidul Alam in 85th minute to reach final.

Just five minutes before the final whistle, Alam scored from a second attempt after Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu failed to hold the ball.

In hockey, India trailed 0-2 after Bangladesh scored in the 20th and 30th minutes through Kamruzzaman and Pushkor respectively.

India came back strongly with three goals to lead 3-2 by the 67th minute. Seniormost pro V Raghunath converted a penalty corner in the 52nd minute before Mohammad Aamir Khan restored parity in the 59th minute. In the 67th minute, Dharamvir Singh slammed the board to give India the lead.

However, their joy was shortlived as two minutes later Bangladesh scored through Mostafa to hold the Indians.

Despite the draw, India finished on top with three wins and one draw in the round-robin league. Pakistan, who had earlier lost to India, finished second with three wins.

In squash, Indian team comprising Gaurav Nandrajog, Vikas Jangra and Sandip Jangra set up a final clash against arch rivals Pakistan with a 3-0 win over Nepal in a round-robin match.

In another match, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 3-0. Nepal will take on Sri Lanka for the bronze medal.