The Indian contingent during the closing ceremony at Guwahati, Tuesday UNI Photo
Shillong: India’s regional supremacy went unchallenged as the hosts were crowned overall champions for the 12th consecutive time after notching up a record-breaking haul of 308 medals, dominating the final day of competitions in the South Asian Games here Tuesday.
With women boxers scooping all the three gold medals on offer and the judokas also bagging two gold and two silver on the last day of the Games, the host nations final tally came to 188 gold, 99 silver and 30 bronze medals. It was a massive jump in medal count for the Indians, who had won 175, including 90 gold, in the previous edition of the Games in 2010.
At the distant second spot were Sri Lanka with a haul of 186 medals (25 gold, 63 silver and 98 bronze). Pakistan held on to the third spot with a final count of 106 medals (12 gold, 37 silver and 57 bronze).
The judokas showed good form on the day to win two categories and finish second best in the other two segments.
Four events were conducted on the last day of the judo competitions and the Indians put up a dominating show once again.
Avatar Singh took just 49 seconds from the stipulated five minutes to prevail over his Afghan opponent Mohammad Ismail Kakar en route to the gold medal in the men’s under 90kg.
Pooja, on the other hand, overcame a strong challenge from Beenish Khan of Pakistan in an evenly-contested duel before the Indian sealed off the issue in 3:03 minutes from the stipulated four in women’s U-70kg.
The women’s U-78kg was tricky as there were only four contestants and Aruna (200 points) was edged out by gold medallist Fouzia Mumtaz (210) of Pakistan
in the round robin league. It was the fifth battle of the day between the two rivals, and Mumtaz clinched the issue in just four minutes.
Pitted against Shah Hussain Shah in the men’s U-100kg final, Shubham Kumar simply lost against the celebrated Pakistani, who won in just one minute and 29 seconds to clinch the gold. PTI
Medal tally (top 5)
Country G S B Total
India 188 90 30 308
Sri Lanka 25 63 98 186
Pakistan 12 37 57 106
Afghanistan 7 9 19 35
Nepal 3 23 34 60
