India shooting gold for fun

Guwahati, February 11 

The star-studded shooting squad was expectedly on target and the track-and-field athletes continued their golden run to keep India way ahead of the competition on the sixth day of the 12th South Asian Games here today. The Indian contingent has so far garnered 233 medals, including 136 gold, 77 silver and 20 bronze. Sri Lanka are placed second with 146 medals — 24 gold, 48 silver and 74 bronze — and Pakistan third with 70 medals — 7 gold, 22 silver and 41 bronze. 

The track and field athletes once again turned out to be the biggest contributors to India’s gold haul, picking seven today. Suman Devi (women’s javelin), veteran Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump), Om Prakash Karhana (men’s shot put), PU Chitra (women’s 1500m), Ajoy Kumar Saroj (men’s 1500m), Jauna Murmu (women’s 400m hurdles) and Dharun Ayyasamy (men’s 400m hurdles) were the ones to strike gold in the track and field arena.

The Indians dominated the shooting ranges, too, grabbing all five gold medals on offer on the day. However, Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang had to be content with a silver in the men’s individual 50m rifle prone event on the second day of the shooting competitions.

‘Gold finger’ Samaresh Jung rolled back the years as he won the gold in the men’s individual 25m centre fire pistol event. Narang, who won a bronze in the 10m air rifle in the 2012 Olympics, was leading till the fifth series but could not sustain it till the end. Compatriot Chain Singh caught up with him in the sixth series before running away with the gold. Chain Singh shot a total of 184.1, while Narang had a score of 183.1. Umar Siddique of Pakistan took the bronze.

Later, the Indian team comprising Chain Singh, Narang and Surendra Singh Rathod, won the gold in the 50m rifle prone event with a total score of 1871.5. Pakistan and Sri Lanka took the silver and bronze, respectively.

In the men’s 25m centre fire pistol, Jung, who last won an individual medal in a top event in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, beat the likes of Pemba Tamang and Vijay Kumar to win the gold.

Nepal hold India, in final

Defending champions India were held to yet another goalless draw, this time by a resilient Nepal. The result propelled Nepal into the final of the women’s football competition here today. India face Bangladesh on Saturday to decide who will face Nepal in the summit clash on February 15.

Indian women thrash Lanka to win hockey gold            

A rampaging India stamped their superiority in women's hockey as they steamrolled Sri Lanka 10-0 in the summit clash to clinch gold here today. Rani Rampal struck four times as India mauled the team from the island nation. India took lead as soon as the match started and they were 2-0 up inside the first five minutes with goals from Rani Rampal and Sushila Devi. 

In men’s hockey, India will look to turn the tables on archrivals Pakistan in the summit clash here on  Friday. — PTI