India bag ten Gold medals at 13th South Asian Games

India dominated the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal yesterday by clinching 10 Gold in Athletics, Volleyball, Shooting and Table Tennis.

In track and field events Archana Suseendran in women's 100 metre, M. Jashna in women's high jump, Sarvesh Anil Kushare in men's high jump and Ajay Kumar Saroj in men's 1500 metres won a gold each to begin India's athletics campaign on an impressive note. Overall, in Athletics India won four gold, four silver and two bronze on the opening day yesterday. 

In Volleyball, Indian men's and women's team won gold. Men's team defeated Pakistan 3-1. India lost first set to Pakistan by 20-25. But Indian players bounced back and won second and third set by 25-15 and 25-17. There was neck to neck fight in the fourth set till the end. Both teams moving one by one point. Finally, India won by 29-27 and lifted the title.

Indian women's volleyball team defeated host Nepal by 3-2 in the final at Kathmandu this evening. In a nail-biting competition Indian girl made a good start and won first set by 25-17. But in the next two sets amid huge support from the home crowd Nepali team played better.



In close contests, Nepal won second and third set by 25-23 and 25-21. In the next two sets, Indian team took an early lead and grabbed the title-winning fourth and fifth sets by 25-20 and 15-6. Thousands of volleyball lovers cheered their team throughout the game. Vice President of Nepal Nanda Bahadur Pun also witnessed one of the most thrilling contests of the games. Mr Pun gave away medals to the winning Indian team.

 

In Shooting, India swept all the medals on offer in the women's 10 metres air rifle event with Mehuli Ghosh winning the gold. India also won the team gold in the 10 metres air rifle event.

In Table Tennis, Indian men's and women's teams claimed gold medals defeating Nepal and Sri Lanka in the finals. India beat hosts Nepal 3-0 in the men's final, while their women's counterparts defeated Sri Lanka by an identical 3-0 margin to win a gold each.