Athletes get 5 gold, India surge to top

Kathmandu, December 4

Track and field athletes led India’s gold rush on the third day of competitions in the 13th South Asian Games as the country added a whopping 29 medals to surge ahead in the medals tally.

India won 15 gold today with athletics contributing five of them as the country’s medal tally surged past Nepal (69). Pakistan is third at 45.

Athletics gave 10 medals (5 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze) while six each from came from table tennis (3 gold and 3 silver) and taekwondo (3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze), five from triathlon (2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) and two —- both gold — from kho kho.

India dominated athletics, taking the total medal count from the discipline to 20.

Archana Suseendran won her second gold by clinching the women’s 200m in 23.67 seconds to add to her yellow metal in the 100m.

Suresh Kumar won the men’s 10,000m race with a time of 29m 32s. Lokesh Sathyanathan and Swamynathan produced an Indian 1-2 in men’s long jump.

Another 1-2 result for the Indians came in the men’s discus throw through Kirpal Singh (57.88m) and Gagandeep Singh (53.57m).

Navjeet Kaur Dhillon fetched India’s fifth gold of the day in women’s discus throw with a below-par 49.87m. In the women’s long jump, Sandra Babu won a bronze to add to India’s medal tally with an effort of 6.02m. India won three gold in taekwondo, through Laitika Bhandari (under 53kg), Jarnel Singh (under 74kg) and Rudali Barua (over 73kg)

In table tennis, India won gold medals in the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

India won both the gold medals in kho kho. — PTI