Hat-trick for women’s football team, boxers hit a six on Day 8

Kathmandu, December 9 

India clinched 42 medals, including 27 gold, on the penultimate day of competitions to inch closer to the 300-mark as the country is poised to finish on top for the 13th time on the trot in the South Asian Games.

The Indians also won 12 silver and three bronze medals to end Day 8 with 294 medals (159 gold, 91 silver and 44 gold) to further widen the gap with second-placed Nepal and third-placed Sri Lanka. 

With just a few events left — including seven boxing finals — on the closing day tomorrow, India is unlikely to cross the 309-medal mark won in Guwahati and Shillong in the last edition in 2016. India has topped every edition of the South Asian Games since its inception in 1984.

Boxers gave India the maximum medals today, with six gold and one silver.

National champion Ankit Khatana (men’s 75kg), Vinod Tanwar (men’s 49kg), Sachin (men’s 56kg), Gaurav Chauhan (men’s 91kg), Kalaivani Srinivasan (women’s 48kg) and Parveen (women’s 60kg) bagged a gold each, while World Championships bronze medallist Manish Kaushik (men’s 64kg) settled for a silver medal on the first day of the finals. Tomorrow, seven Indians — Vikas Krishan (men’s 69kg), Narender (men’s +91kg), Sparsh (men’s 52kg), Varinder (men’s 60kg), Pinki Rani (women’s 51kg), Sonia Lather (women’s 57kg) and Manju Bamboriya (women’s 64kg) — will fight in the finals.

Wrestling whitewash

In wrestling, Indians won both the gold on offer today with Gaurav Baliyan and Anita Sheoran registering comfortable victories in men’s 74kg and women’s 68kg, respectively, to complete their stupendous show.

India made a golden whitewash in all 14 categories of the wrestling event at this South Asian Games. India won seven gold medal each in men’s and women’s events.

Indian fencers also won all the three gold on offer, winning the top prizes in the men’s team foil, women’s team epee and women’s team saber events. It was a near clean sweep for Indian fencers as they clinched 11 out of 12 gold on offer.

The country also had clean sweeps in kabbadi and basketball 3x3 as the men’s and women’s teams in both the disciplines won a gold each. The Indian men’s kabaddi team beat Sri Lanka 51-18 in the summit clash, while the women also finished on top of the podium after defeating hosts Nepal 50-13 in the final.

In shooting, India won a gold in the air pistol mixed event through the pair of Anuraj  Singha and Shrawan Kumar. The country completely dominated the shooting 

range by winning 18 gold, seven silver and four bronze medals.

Bala’s brace

The Indian women’s football team won its third consecutive gold medal at the South Asian Games after beating hosts Nepal 2-0 in the summit clash.

Bala Devi was the star of the show again as she struck goals on either side of half-time to guide India to a comfortable victory.

The 29-year-old striker also ended as the top-scorer of the tournament, netting five goals in four matches. — PTI

South asian games

Medal table

Nation g s b tot

India 159 91 44 294

Nepal 49 54 92 195

Sri Lanka 39 79 118 236