India cements place atop points table on Day 6 of South Asian Games 2016

Already leading the medals tally by a significant margin with consistently strong performances through the first 5 days of the 12th South Asian Games, Indian athletes extended their medal lead today, taking it 238, that includes a whopping 140 Golds.

With the weightlifting, wrestling, cycling, badminton, squash and table tennis events all having concluded at the games, today saw the final medal matches for in tennis, shot put, javelin, long jump, triple jump and several athletics and track-and-field events.

Here’s how India fared on Day 6:

Shooting

The day began with Indian Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang shot his personal best of 628.9 today in the Men's 50m prone rifle event – where he proceeded to win silver, with India’s Chain Singh taking gold at the same event.

India’s female shooters also took a clean sweep at the 50m prone rifle event, winning gold, silver and bronze.

In the 25m Center Fire Pistol event, India had a medal lockout with Samaresh Jung taking Gold, Vijay Kumar winning Silver and Pemba Tamang the Bronze medal.

The Women’s 50m Rifle event also saw India dominate as Gangulee Kuheli, Gausami Lajja and Jung Anuja won the Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively and the same trio won the Gold in the team event as well with a score of 1835.6.

Tennis

Tournament top seed Saketh Myneni took on second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan in the final medal match of the men’s tennis singles, with Myneni, the higher ranked of the pair, widely expected to win. However, it was Ramanathan who pulled off an upset, going neck and neck with Myneni in the first set to eventually beat him roundly in the second set.

As 2016 saw the first ever time tennis was included in the South Asian Games, Ramanathan’s win made him the first ever gold medallist in Men’s singles tennis in the history of the South Asian Games.

India also won gold at the men’s doubles event.

Prarthana Thombare and Sharmada Balu won gold for India at the women’s doubles tennis.

Hockey

The Indian Women’s Hockey team won the Gold in absolutely dominating fashion, defeating Sri lanka 10-0 in the final. Rani Rampal was the star for the hosts, scoring a hat-trick

Track and field

Indian athlete Dharun A won gold at the Men’s 400m hurdles later in the day, with compatriot Jithin Paul winning the silver medal. L Surya won the Gold in the Women’s 10000m event while Swaty Gadhave won the Silver.

At the long jump, Indian jumper Ranjith Maheshwari aced his 6th and final attempt with a near perfect effort, winning the gold medal for India, while Surendhar J, also of India, won silver.

India’s female athletes also saw double medals, with Suman Devi winning gold in the women’s javelin throw, while her colleague Annu Rani won silver.

Om Prakash Singh won the Gold in the Men’s Shotput while Jasdeep Singh clinched the silver.

India won the gold in the women’s 1500m run with Chitra Devi taking home the top prize , and gold and bronze in the men’s. Indian sprinter Ajay Kumar Saroj won gold at the men’s 1500m run while Rahul won the bronze.

The 400m Women’s event saw similar scenes unfold as that of the Men’s with Jauna Murmu winning Gold and Ashwani Akunji winning Silver. The 4x100m and 4x400m Team event also saw the hosts win Gold.

Other sports

India drew with Nepal in the teams’ women’s football match today. The Indian women’s kabaddi team also pulled off a victory over Nepal, with a convincing 51-17 win, although neither of those two contests was a medal match.