SAG 2016: Boxers, shooters, judokas' golden sweep keeps India on top

Guwahati The boxers hardly broke a sweat to scoop all the seven gold medals up for grabs while shooters ended their campaign with an outstanding tally of 25 gold medals to ensure that Indias reign at the top remained unhindered at the 12th South Asian Games here yesterdayOn the penultimate day of competitions the Indian contingent continued to be perched at the top with 299 medals 181 gold 88 silver and 30 bronze Sri Lanka were second on the table with 181 medals 25 gold 60 silver and 96 bronze followed by Pakistan with 100 medals 11 gold 35 silver and 55 bronzeGold medal winner Sweta Singh center silver medal winner Heena Sidhu L and bronze medal winner Yashaswini Singh Deswal of India at the presentation ceremony Pic PTIBesides the boxers and shooters good show the judokas grabbed seven gold and a silver in a near sweep while India also bagged both the yellow metals in mens and womens kabbadi as well as in mens and womens handball in a complete domination yet againThe Indian womens football team also won a gold medal defeating Nepal 40 in the summit clash Their mens counterparts however lost to Nepal 12 to settle for asilver The boxers were the stars of the show today in Shillong with all the seven men in the final notching up mostly comprehensive victoriesCommonwealth Games silvermedallist L Devendro Singh 49kg began Indias gold rush when he thrashed Pakistans Mohib Ulla at the SAI campus in North Eastern Hill University on the outskirts of the city The London Olympics quarterfinalist was adjudged the winner on a split decision of 21Next man in was 35yearold former national champion Madan Lal 52kg and he too prevailed over another Pakistani opponent in Mohammad Syed Asif to be adjudged 30 winner World No2 and World Championships bronzemedallist Shiva Thapa 56kg was the fan favourite of the day and he impressed the boisterous crowd to prevail over Sri Lankan W Ruwan ThilinaAgainst the aggressive Lankan who was aiming for head butts Thapa adopted a defensive strategy to avoid his initial blows World no6 Vikas Krishan 775kg put up a brave front fighting through flu to down Pakistans Tanveer Ahmed The Olympic medal prospect prevailed over his opponent with some feisty uppercuts and was adjudged 30 winner unanimouslyAnother from the Indian boxing hub of Haryana 20yearold Dheeraj Rangi who had secured a silver medal at the World Military Games in South Korea last year defeated Pakistans Ahmed Ali in the 60kg gold medal boutExperienced boxer Manoj Kumar the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist was also adjudged winner in an unanimous decision of 30 against Dinidu Saparamadu of Sri Lanka in the 64kg categoryCommonwealth Games medallist Mandeep Jangra 69kg survived a closelyfought contest against Afghanistans Rahemi Alla Dad to win 30 At the shooting range in Guwahati Indian shooters made yet another clean sweep on the final day to sign off with a staggering 25 out of 26 gold medals on offerRio Olympics bound Gurpreet Singh shot gold in mens individual 25m rapid fire pistol with a total of 28 hits on target while Sweta Singh grabbed another yellow metal in womens individual 10m air pistol event with a total score of 1944 even though she was shooting with her spare gun at the Kahilipara Shooting Range hereAnother Olympics quota holder Heena Sidhu had to be content with the silver in the womens 10m air pistol event with a total score of 1925 while 18yearold Chandigarh shooter Yashaswini Singh Deswal took the bronzeIndia also took a gold each in both the team events to sweep aide any competition from other countries in the discipline India gave away just one gold to Bangladesh in the discipline The home shooters ended the competition with 25 gold 10 silver and 10 bronze Bangladesh are at a distant second with one gold three silver and three bronzeGurpreet made up for his disappointing sixthplace finish in the 10m air pistol event on Saturday by winning the gold in 25m rapid fire pistol event yesterday Bashir Ghulam Mustafa of Pakistan took the silver with 24 hits on target while another Indian Vijay Kumar who had won a silver in this event in 2012 London Olympics bagged the bronzeIn the womens 10m air pistol final there was tough competition among the three Indians exchanging leads among three of them But towards the end Sweta had established good lead over her two Indian rivals after young Deswal had a horrendous series of two shots of 83 and 77 which cost her dearSidhu was not at her best in the final and she had just five shots of 10 plus scores out of 20 attempts besides having poor shots of 88 each For Sweta this was the worst ever performance despite winning the gold as she had to shoot with a spare gunIn judo Bhupinder Singh 60kg Jasleen Singh Saini 66kg Manjeet Nadal 73kg and Karanjeet Singh Maan 81kg won the gold medal in mens category while Sushila Devi Likmabam 48kg Kalpana Devi Thoudam 52kg and Anita Chanu Angom 57kg clinched the yellow metal in the womens sectionSunibala Devi Huidrom lost to Phupu Lhamukhatri of Nepal in 63kg final to settle for silver In kabaddi defending champions India maintained their supremacy by clinching gold in both mens and womens events Indian men beat arch rivals Pakistan 97 in a closely fought thrilling summit clash while their women counterpartshardly broke a sweat in defending their gold they had won in the previous edition by thrashing Bangladesh 3612 in the finalIt was a repeat of the 2010 summit clash in both the finals and Pakistan and Bangladesh had to be content with a silver in mens and womens events for second time in a row In handball India dethroned Pakistan as regional champions in the mens handball while their women counterparts also clinched the gold to stamp the home countrys supremacy in the disciplineIndian men beat Pakistan 3231 in a nailbiting summit clash that went down to the wire at the Laxmibai National Institute of Physical Education Northeast Regional Center grounds hereThe Indian mens team thus exacted revenge of their loss in the 2010 edition summit clash in Dhaka The Indian womens side on the other hand defended the title they had won in 2010 edition by beating Bangladesh 4525However in mens football Indias long wait for a gold in the South Asian Games after 1995 continued as they lost 12 against Nepal in the summit clash In a closelyfought final India took the lead in the 31st minute with Holicharan Nazary converting a penalty kick but Nepal replied strongly in the second half by pumping in two goals through Prakash Thapa 66th and Nawayug Shreshtha 72nd to win the match at the Indira Gandhi Stadium hereIndia thus settled for the silver while Bangladesh took the bronze after defeating Maldives 76 via penalty shootout in the thirdplace playoff today