South Asian Games: Marksmen on target as India’s domination continues

Guwahati, The star-studded shooting squad was expectedly on target, while the track-and-field athletes continued their golden run as India held on firmly to the top spot by remaining way ahead of competition on the sixth day of the 12th South Asian Games here on Thursday.
Reaching the double century mark, the Indian contingent has now won 237 medals, including 139 gold, 78 silver and 20 bronze.
Consistent at the second position are the Sri Lankans with 151 medals — 25 gold, 50 silver and 76 bronze in all.
Pakistan occupied the third spot with 72 medals — 7 gold, 22 silver and 43 bronze.
The track and field athletes once again were the biggest contributors to India’s gold haul, picking up 11 today.
Suman Devi (women’s javelin), Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump), Om Prakash Karhana (men’s shot put), P U Chitra (women’s 1500m), Ajoy Kumar Saroj (men’s 1500m), Jauna Murmu (women’s 400m hurdles), Dharun Ayyasamy (men’s 400m hurdles), L Surya (women’s 10,000m), Srabani Nanda (womens’ 200m) and men’s and women’s 4×400 relay teams were the ones to strike gold in the track and field arena.
India dominated the shooting ranges too grabbing all the five gold medals on offer.
However, Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang had to be content with a silver in men’s individual 50m rifle prone event on the second day of the shooting competitions.
‘Gold finger’ Samaresh Jung rolled back the years as he won the gold in men’s individual 25m center fire pistol event at the Kahilipara Shooting Range here.
Narang, who won a bronze in 10m air rifle in 2012 Olympics, was leading till the fifth series but could not sustain it till the end.
Compatriot Chain Singh caught up with Narang in the sixth series before running away with the gold. Chain Singh shot a total of 184.1, while Narang had 183.1. Umar Siddique of Pakistan took the bronze.
Later, the Indian team comprising Chain Singh, Narang and Surendra Singh Rathod, won the gold in 50m rifle prone event with a total score of 1871.5. Pakistan and Sri Lanka took the silver and bronze.
In men’s 25m center fire pistol, Jung, who last won an individual medal in a top event in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, beat the likes of Pemba Tamang and Vijay Kumar to win the gold.
Jung, who is best known for his stupendous performance in the 2006 Commonwealth Games as he clinched five gold medals, shot a total of 580 points to clinch the gold in a tough field.
Tamang took the bronze with a total shot of 579 points while Vijay, who won a silver in 25m rapid fire pistol event in the London Olympics, got the bronze after a shoot off as three marksmen ended at 577 points.