Building on their stellar performance from Day 1, the Indian contingent at the South Asian games continued to excel, adding to their medal tally as the games progress in Guwahati, Assam.
India led the medal tally going into Day 2 with 19 medals on the first day, with titles in swimming, weightlifting, cycling and archery. They did even better on day 2, winning a total of 26 medals, which included 16 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze.
The Indians won 10 medals in Swimming, 5 in Wrestling, 4 in Weightlifting, 3 in Cycling and 2 each in Table Tennis and Wushu today.
More Indian weightlifters did well today, with Saraswati Rout taking weighlifting gold in her category, the women’s 58kg, and Sambo Lampung winning in the men’s 69kg. Adding to the gold medal tally in weightlifting was Haryana-born Reena, who came out top in the 63kg
The Indian women’s hockey team took perhaps the most one-sided of victories today, beating Nepal’s side 24-0 in the teams’ round robin match. The Indian team are ranked 13th in the world, while the Nepalese squad do not feature on the FIH (Hockey International Federation) rankings.
After yesterday’s tally of four golds and three silvers at swimming, India’s squad added 10 more medals today, including winning the top prize at the men’s 100m freestyle relay – the 4x100m event.
India also won gold at both the men's and the women’s table tennis, beating Pakistan 3 sets to nil in the latter to take the gold.
The country’s contingent ends day two also on top, and with closest competitor Sri Lanka trailing by a long gap, India look set to win the games by a resounding margin.
India’s squash aces did not have a successful outing today, however, with both Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Sandhu losing out to Pakistani competitors Farhan Zaman and Nasir Iqbal respectively, with Ghosal, India’s top-ranked male player, losing 4-11, 5-11, 12-10, 5-11 while Sandhu was behind 7-11 14-12 7-11 6-6 when he retired with an injury.
Ghosal and Sandhu are due to play each other for the bronze medal playoff at the South Asian Games tomorrow, and Ghosal is a prior silver medallist at the event, winning 2nd prize in 2014. There is no word yet, however, on Sandhu’s level of fitness for the match.
Indian squash ace Joshna Chinappa, who is top-seeded at the Games, beat Pakistani competitor Sadia Gul 11-9 11-7 11-5 in the semi-finals of the women’s singles, with her next opponent to be decided later today.
