India breached the 200-mark in total medal count, backed by a century of gold, in the South Asian Games as the country's juggernaut as undisputed leader continued with the swimmers and wrestlers producing strong performances on Day 6 in Kathmandu on Saturday.
With a whopping 49 medals, including 29 gold, won by the Indians on Saturday, India has left hosts Nepal far behind in the second spot. India's medal tally stood at 214 (110 gold, 69 silver, 35 bronze) as against 142 (43 gold, 34 silver, 65 bronze) of Nepal.
Sri Lanka stood at third with 170 medals (30 gold, 57 silver, 83 bronze).
The swimmers led India's charge on Saturday by winning 7 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze as they completely dominated the pool yet again.
Srihari Nataraj (100m backstroke), Richa Mishra (800m freestyle), Siva S (400 individual medley), Maana Patel (100m backstroke), Chahat Arora (50m backstroke) , Likith SP (50m breaststroke) and Rujuta Bhatt (50m freestyle) all grabbed the top honours.
A V Jayaveena (50m breaststroke) and Ridhima Veerendrakumar (100m back stroke) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.
After Saturday's dominating show, India's total medal count from this discipline has gone up to 30. On the first two days, the swimmers had won 21 medals in total.
Indian wrestlers also began their competition with a bang as they won four gold on the opening day.
Satyawart Kadian (men's 97kg freestyle), Sumit Malik (men's 125kg freestyle), Gurshanpreet Kaur (women's 76kg) and Sarita Mor (women's 57kg) all won gold in their respective events to ensure that India ruled the mat.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kadian floored his Pakistani opponent Tabiyar Khan while national champion Gurshanpreet won gold in her first international competition after seven years.
Shooters also continued their dominating show by clinching three gold on the penultimate day of competitions.
Anish Bhanwala won the men's 25m rapid fire pistol gold and then teamed up with Bhabesh Shekhawat and Adarsh Singh to win the men's team event title. Mehuli Ghosh and Yas Vardhan pocketed the third shooting gold of the day for India in 10m air rifle mixed event.
The weightlifters added two gold on Saturday, taking their overall medal haul to 10 medals (9 gold, 1 silver).
Sharsti Singh lifted a total of 190kg to finish on top of the podium in 81kg weight category while Anurudha won gold in women' 87kg category with a total effort of 200kg.
India won eight medals but without a gold on the final day of track and field competitions. Rashpal Singh (men's marathon), Muhammad Afsal (men's 800m), Shivpal Singh (men's javelin throw) and the men's 4x400m relay team won a silver each.
Sher Singh (men's marathon), Jyoti Gawate (women's marathon), Sharmila Kumari (women's javelin throw) and women's 4x400m relay race team clinched a bronze each.
India thus ended the athletics competition with a whopping 47 medals (12 gold, 20 silver, 15 bronze).
In squash, three Indians made it to the finals to ensure themselves of at least a silver medal each.
Sunayna Kuruvilla and Tanvi Khanna will face each other in an all-Indian women's singles final after winning their respective semi-final matches while Harinder Pal Sandhu also cruised into the finals of the men's singles event.
7 Indian boxers reach final
World Championships bronze medallist Manish Kaushik (64kg) led the charge as seven Indian boxers entered the finals of South Asian Games in Kathmandu on Saturday.
Kaushik produced an offensive show right from the start and thoroughly dominated during his semi-final bout against Sri Lanka's Ponnawila Vidanalage to register a commanding 5-0 victory.
Sachin Siwach (56kg), Ankit Khatana (75kg), Vinod Tanwar (49kg) and Gaurav Chauhan (91kg) were the other four Indian men boxers to enter final while S Kalaivani progressed into women's (48kg) final.
Youth world champion Siwach defeated Naqueebullah of Pakistan with a 5-0 verdict. Khatana also won with an identical margin against Hossain Mohammad Arif of Pakistan.
Despite the crowd support, local boy Sushil Thapa failed to produce any resistance as Tanwar marched into the final with a unanimous nod from the judges. Chauhan too defeated Arjun Sigu of Nepal 5-0.
In the women's category, young boxer Kalaivani displayed good attacking prowess during her win over Bhutan's Tandin Lhamo. 2017 Asian Championship bronze medallist Shiksha outpunched her Sri Lankan opponent by an identical 5-0 verdict.
Eight Indian boxer, including five men -- Sparsh (52kg), Varinder (60kg), Vikash Krishan (69kg), Sachin (81kg) and Narender (+91kg) -- and three women -- Pinki Rani (51kg), Sonia Lather (57kg) and Manju Bamboriya (64kg) -- will be seen in action during their semi-final bouts on Sunday.
Praveen (60kg) is already in the finals by virtue of the draw. The final will be held on Monday.
Maldives dismissed for 8 runs, 9 players out for duck
The Maldives women's cricket team was on Saturday bundled out for just eight runs by hosts Nepal for the second lowest T20 International total in history in the third place play-off of the 13th South Asian Games in Pokhara, Nepal.
Maldives' total of eight ranks as the second-lowest women's T20 International score in history. Mali holds the record of scoring the lowest total after they could only manage six against Rwanda in June.
Electing to bat, the Maldives struggled with the bat. Seven of their eight runs came from extras all of which were wides. Opener Aima Aishath (1) got the only run from the bat, while her nine other team-mates were dismissed for ducks in an innings which lasted 11.3 overs.
Captain Zoona Mariyam lasted the longest at the crease for Maldives, playing 16 deliveries before she was bowled by Nepal's Karuna Bhandari for a duck.
For Nepal, Anjali Chand returned with the superb figures of 4/1.
In reply, Nepal openers Kajal Shreshtha and Roma Thapa got the job done without much fuss in just seven balls.
Indian women's football team enters South Asian Games final
The Indian women's team beat hosts Nepal 1-0 to register its third win on the trot and enter the final of the South Asian Games here on Saturday.
Bala Devi scored the only goal of the game in the 18th minute at the Pokhara Stadium as defending champions India claimed the top spot in the round-robin stage.
India will again face Nepal in the summit clash on Monday.
The Indian team almost took the lead in the 10th minute through Ratanbala Devi but her shot from close range was off-target after some great work from Dangmei Grace down the right flank.
However, just eight minutes later, Bala put the Indian side in front with a headed goal -- successfully converting a corner from Grace.
Almost immediately, the hosts threatened to score but Aditi Chauhan stood tall in the goal for India, making a fine save from a shot from inside the penalty area.
Bala Devi missed another chance in the 41st minute as her shot off a one-on-one situation was saved by the Nepal keeper. On the rebound, Sandhiya Ranganathan's follow-up was wide of the mark as the Indian side headed into the breather with the 1-0 lead.
The second half saw Nepal push for the equaliser but the Indian defenders were up to the task and were determined to make it three clean sheets in a row. The home side looked to threaten from set-piece positions. However, the Indian backline led by Ashalata Devi remained rock-solid and closed out the game comfortably.
Saturday's result meant that the Indian side continued their perfect run in the South Asian Games after registering 5-0 and 6-0 wins over Maldives and Sri Lanka respectively in their previous two games.
