No stopping India's SAG golden haul

Guwahati: India's might found no challenge in the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) with the country's archers, wrestlers and weightlifters clinching a majority of gold medals to ensure a third successive day of supremacy for the host country here on Monday.

While compound archers scooped all five gold medals on offer, wrestlers also annihilated competition to grab five yellow metals out of six. Courtesy the strong showing by them, India continued to top the medals' tally with a count of 79, which includes 53 gold, 20silver and six bronze medals.

Sri Lanka held on to the second spot with 63 medals (11 gold, 27 silver and 25 bronze). Pakistan was a distant third in the tally with 29 medals (4 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze) in their kitty.

The golden run began early today for India in Shillong with compound archers grabbing all the five gold medals on offer along with two silver medals to rule the roost. The Indian archers topped the medals chart ahead of Bangladesh, who finished with two silver and two bronze medals and third placed Bhutan (0-1-1).

The compound trio of Purvasha Shende, Jyoti Vennam and Lily Chanu Paonam started the gold rush for India downing their opponents from Bangladesh 228-217 in the morning session. Purvasha went on to win a hat-trick of gold medals as she also emerged the individual champion and bagged her third in mixed pair event with Asian Games team gold and individual silver medallist Abhishek Verma.

After a near perfect round in the team event where he shot 15 perfect 10s out of a possible 16, Verma lost to compatriot Rajat Chauhan by two points in the individual final as both of them returned with two gold medals each. Ranked world No.5, Chauhan lived up to his reputation, edging out Verma 144-142 to emerge the individual champion in a thrilling men's final in the afternoon session.

In the squash competition, star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women's individual event after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clash. Top seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recovered from one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7 at the brand new squash facility at the R G Baruah Sports Complex here.

With Chinappa's gold, India has so far won three medals in squash with Sourav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu having grabbed a bronze each after losing to their Pakistani opponents yesterday. On the wrestling mat in Guwahati, Indian grapplers simply destroyed their opponents to finish with 14 gold medals out of a total 16 on offer.

Despite being represented by a second string team, the home wrestlers proved too strong for their South Asian neighbours as they grabbed five more gold out of six on offer, besides a silver, on the concluding day today at the R G Baruah Sports Complex. Indian wrestlers thus ended their campaign with a whopping 14 gold and two silver. India won gold in all the eight women's categories, while their men counterparts won six gold and two silver.

Medal tally

Countries Gold Silver Bronze Total
India 53 20 06 79
Sri Lanka 11 27 25 63
Pakistan 04 11 14 29
Bangladesh 03 07 21 31
Nepal 01 04 07 12
Afghanistan 00 02 05 07
Bhutan 00 01 01 02
Maldives 00 00 01 01