India storm South Asian Games; take medal count to 42

Guwahati, February 7

Indian swimmers ruled the 12th South Asian Games on Sunday as they took the country’s medal tally to 42 on Sunday.

Swimmers won 10 medals: four gold, five silver and three bronze. Wrestlers accounted for five medals — four gold and a silver — and weightlifters lifted three golds.

However ace swimmer Veerdhawal Khad’s loss to Sri Lankan teenager Matthew Abeysinghe in the men's 50m freestyle was a slight dampener to an otherwise brilliant for the Indian swim team, which created five games’ records. Abeysinghe grabbed his third gold of the Games: the most by any swimmer so far

India’s current medal tally stands at 27 gold, 12 silver and 3 bronze medals.

Sri Lanka came a close second at 37 medals (eight gold, 17 silver, 12 bronze).

Swimmer Sandeep Sejwal picked up his second gold in the Games on Sunday. 

However, Sejwal, who won a gold in 200m breaststroke on Saturday, struck gold in 100m breastroke in a new record of 1:03.14 in the games, bettering his previous 1:05.01 of 2010.

Compatriot Puneet Rana won silver at 1:03.80 and Sri Lanka’s Kiran Jasinghe won bronze.

In men's 1500m freestyle, Kerala swimmer Sajan Prakash won his first international gold in 15:55.30, finishing ahead of another Indian Saurabh Sangvekar (16:13.2).

Bangladesh’s Mohd. Mahfizur Rahman finished third (17:12.0).

In women's 400m individual medley, India finished one-two, with Sayani Ghosh winning the gold in 05:14.51 and Shraddha Sudhir came second (05:23.32). Sri Lanka’s J Silva finished third (05:44.20).

M Arvind gave India the fourth gold by winning the men's 200m backstroke event.

Indian swimmers won three gold, five silver and three bronze on Saturday.

In women's 200m backstroke, Manna Patel took silver in 2: 22.06 seconds, behind Sri Lanka’s Kimiko Raheem (2:18.09).

The lone bronze winner for India was Chahat Arora in women's 100m breastroke.

Wrestlers Amit Dhankar (70kg), Mamta (53kg), Manju Kumari (58kg) and Pradeep (61kg) picked up the gold medals in their r events.

The lone silver for Indian in wrestling came through Gopal Yadav (86kg) who lost to Mohd Imam of Pakistan in the final.    

Weightlifters Saraswati Rout (women's 58 kg), Sambo Lapung (men's 69 kg) and Ajay Singh (men's 77 kg) won a gold each to take India's medal tally from weightlifting to six gold out of eight in two days. — PTI