India breaches double hundred in medal count, century mark in gold in South Asian Games

Kathmandu : 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 here 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.