Hosts start with strong note

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 6: India maintained their supremacy in the 12th South Asian Games and picked as many as 19 medals including 14 gold on day two of the championship. The first two medals of the day came in the cycling events. India won other gold medals in Weightlifting (3), Swimming (4) and Wrestling (5).

Sri Lanka and Pakistan finished second and third spot collecting 21 and 6 medals respectively.

India started on a high by winning two gold and two silver in cycling on day two. However best performance came in wrestling event grabbing five gold medals. Swimmers came second with 4 gold and three silvers.

In the weightlifting competition India bagged three gold medals today. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won gold in women's 48kg weight category. Dinusha Hansani Bomiriyaga Gomas of Sri Lanka  and Molla Shabira of Bangladesh collected silver and bronze respectively.

The second gold in the weightlifting event came through Gururaja in men's 56 kg event. Chathuranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka and Abdullah Ghafoor of Pakistan collected silver and bronze medals. India won other gold in this event women 58 kg category.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka today picked up four gold medals three of which came in swimming events. Maththew Abeysinghee came out with flying colour picking men 4X100mts and 200 mts butter fly gold. The island country won the other gold medal in the 4X100mts women relay. On the other hand India won gold medals in swimming through Sandeep Sejwal (men 200 mts brest stroke), Shivani Kataria (Women 200mts freestyle ), Damini Gowda (women 100 m butterfly stroke) and women 4X100 m relay.

Pakistan won only gold medal of the day in swimming. Lian Catherine Swan wrote the medal in her me participating in women 200m breast stroke.

Volleyball: India made good start in the men’s volleyball event thrashing Nepal 3-0 at the Karmavir bin Chandra Bordoloi indoor stadium here today. India won the match by 25-15, 25-16, 25-16. In the other game of the day in men’s section Bangladesh lost to Maldives by 17-25, 20-25, 23-25.Pakistan also won their match against Afghanistan by 25-14, 25-18 and 25-13. In the women category Maldives won their match against Pakistan  by 3-0.

Kho-kho: India and Bangladesh won their respective matches in the men team event at Tapesia today. India defeated Nepal by 23-21 while Bangladesh thrashed Sri Lanka by 19-6.