India continued their gold rush at the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati and Shillong with yet another dominating performance that saw them win 27 medals that include 18 Golds, 6 Silvers and 3 Bronze to finish with a total medal count of 72 medals and finish yet another day comfortably on top of the medal standings.
The Indians won
Here’s how the day unfolded:
Weightlifting
India’s gold tally in weightlifting saw a further rise on Monday when Kavita Devi won the Gold in the Women’s 75kg category. Her win now makes it 4 Gold medals for India in the Women’s category with the likes of Mirabi Chanu Saikom(48kg), Harshdeep Kaur(53kg), Saraswati Ram(58kg) and Rakhi Haler(69kg) being the others to stand on top of the podium.
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India had already won 3 Gold medals in the Men’s category so far, with Gopal Anbarasu(62kg), Guru Raja(56kg) and Sambo Lapung(69kg), and added two more on Monday with Vikas Thakur winning the Gold in the Men’s 85kg category and Abhilash Christopher winning in the Men’s 105kg event.
Archery
India had a field day as far as Archery was concerned with the compound archers winning 5 Gold medals and 2 Silver medals. The trio of Purvasha Shende, Jyoti Vennam and Lliy Chanu Paonam won the Gold by beating Bangladesh in the final 228-217.
Shende also won the Gold in the Mixed pair event, partnering Abhishek Verma and also emerged the individual champion.
In the Men’s Individual Compound category, Verma lost to fellow archer Rajat Chauhan by a mere two points 144-142 to take home the silver while the latter took home the Gold.
The Indian recurve shooters have the opportunity to win 5 golds and 2 silvers on Tuesday.
Badminton
The Indian badminton team began the day on a victorious note as the Men’s team led by Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram in the Singles and Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy defeated Bangladesh 3-0 in the semifinals in the morning.
Later in the afternoon, the Men’s team clinched the final against Sri Lanka by the same margin as Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Attri. Reddy registered comfortable wins to help India won the top prize in the Men’s contingent. Each of the players clinched their respective matches in straight games to eventually win the tie.
The Indian Women’s team also followed suit, beating Sri Lanka by a convincing margin in the final to double the joy for the hosts on Monday.
Cycling
The Indian Women’s Cycling team, consisting of Chaoba Devi Eangbam, Bidayuluxmi Tourangbam, G Manisha and Rutuja Satpute clinched the Gold in the 40kn Team Time Trial event winning the race with a finish time of 1:05:2:52 and a final time of 0:59:23:52.
Hockey
After defeating Nepal 24-0 in their opening match, the Indian Women’s hockey team continued its sensational form, this time inflicting a 12-1 loss on Sri Lanka. Jaspreet Kaur was the star of the day netting in 5 past the keeper as the eves completed yet another thumping win, their second one on the trot.
Despite their best efforts, the Indian men's hockey team was beaten 2-1 by arch-rivals Pakistan in a group match at the South Asian Games, Guwahati.
Squash
It was joy for Joshna Chinappa in the Women’s Individual event as she beat Maria Wazeer of Pakistan in the final in four games to take home the Gold medal. It was Joshna’s third triumph at these Games after winning the top prize in the 2004 and 2006 editions respectively.
Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Sandhu took that tally to 3 for the day when each of them won the bronze in the Individual Men’s Singles category.
Swimming
India had another successful day in the pool with V Malvika winning the Gold in the Women’s 800m Freestyle and PS Madhu and Sethu Manickavel winning the Gold and Silver respectively in the Men’s 100m backstroke.
Sanjeev Sejwal won the Gold in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke event while Punit Rana clinched the silver in the same category. Maana Patel won the silver in the Women’s 100m Backstroke and the bronze in the Women’s 50 Freestyle while
Wrestling
The wrestling campaign came to an end for India, but what a few days it proved to be for the grapplers. Out of the 16 Gold medals on offer, India won a total of 14 that included an astonishing 8 in the Women’s category, while Men won 6 Golds and 2 Silver medals to round off an excellent campaign.
Wushu
India had a good day in Wushu as well as Punshiva Meitei won the Gold and Swachaha Jatav clinched the Silver in the Men’s and Women’s Wushu at Shillong. This now takes the country’s tally in the sport to 4 with 2 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal.
Anjul Namdeo won the bronze in the Taolu-Changquan.
