Indian archers grabbed three gold medals in the recurve event and are all set to make a clean sweep in the discipline at the 12th South Asian Games, in Shillong on Tuesday.
Indian women's trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayala Devi shot below par scores but it was enough for them to blank their misfiring Sri Lankan opponents 6-0 to open their medals tally in recurve at Polo Grounds this morning.
"Wind was circulating inside the stadium and it was getting difficult to adjust to get a perfect 10. Thankfully it was easy for us," Deepika told PTI after the win.
The men's team followed suit with a 5-1 win in what seemed to be a one-sided final. But it was not so as the Indian trio of Tarundeep Rai, Gurucharan Besra and Jayanta Talukdar faced a stiff challenge from their Lankan rivals.
While defending champion Rai and Talukdar were not in their elements, it was Besra who continued his dream comeback run and made all the difference with one-point and two-point wins in the first and decisive third set.
India's mixed pair of Rai and Deepika added a second gold medal to their kitty, a third overall in recurve, as they had a 6-0 cakewalk against the Bangladeshi duo of Sojeb Shiek and Beauty Ray.
The archers are all set to conclude their campaign by winning two gold and two more silver medals in the all-Indian individual men's and women's finals in the second session later in the day.
On Monday, the compound archers too signed off in style winning all the five golds on offer along with two silver medals.
Taking the newly-included compound section into account, India's final medals tally in archery at the 12th edition of the Games will be 10 gold and four silver medals.
The women's final was a complete mismatch as the Sri Lankan team suffered a time-out in the first set.
The Indian women's team had just two perfect 10s one each from Deepika and Laxmirani but it hardly mattered in the lopsided contest.
Rai started the proceedings for India with a poor 8 as the trio totalled 23 against Lankan's 27 (9-8-10). But still they managed to overcome the Lankans 52-51 with 10-10-9 in the second end where the rivals shot 8-8-8.
The Indians almost lost the second set but Besra made all the difference with his perfect 10 to level 53-53 to create pressure on the Lankans.
Senior Army archer Besra, who was making an international comeback after 2001, shot another perfect 10 in the third set as India beat Sri Lanka 55-53 to win the gold by 6-0 margin.
India bags 12 gold in weightlifting
Indian lifters bagged one gold and a silver on the concluding day of weightlifting event in the 12th South Asian Games to end their campaign with 12 golds and one silver and sweep aside all their opponents in Guwahati on Tuesday.
Out of the 15 events in the weightlifting competition, India won gold in 13 of them and a silver in another in an overwhelming display of domination.
The Indian men weightlifters bagged six gold and one silver out of eight events while their women counterparts won six gold out of seven on offer.
Sushila Panwar secured the lone gold medal for India today in women's +75 kg category, lifting a total of 198kg. Ishani Annushka Kaluthanthri of Sri Lanka won the silver with a total effort of 173kg. Tara Devi Pun of Nepal took the bronze with a total lift of 165 kg.
In the men's +105 kg category, Gurdeep Singh finished in second place with a total lift of 345 kg. Muhammad Nooh Dastgir Butt of Pakistan won the gold with a total lift of 360 kg (160 + 200). Saman Gedara of Sri Lanka won the bronze with a total lift of 275 kg (120 + 150).
