India closes in on 300-medal mark

The country is poised to finish on top for the 13th time in a row. The Indian athletes also won 12 silver and 3 bronze to end Day 8 with 294 medals (159 gold, 91 silver and 44 gold) and further widen the gap with second-placed Nepal, which has collected 195 (49 gold, 54 silver and 92 bronze). Sri Lanka is third with 236 medals (39 gold, 79 silver and 118 bronze).

With just a few events -- including seven boxing finals -- left on the closing day on Tuesday, India is unlikely to cross the 309 total medals it won in Guwahati and Shillong in the last edition in 2016 but may go past the 300-mark. India has topped every edition of the South Asian Games since its inception in 1984.

Boxers gave India the maximum medals on Monday with six gold and one silver. National champion Ankit Khatana (men's 75kg), Vinod Tanwar (men's 49kg), Sachin (men's 56kg), Gaurav Chauhan (men's 91kg), Kalaivani Srinivasan (women's 48kg) and Parveen (women's 60kg) bagged a gold each.

In wrestling, Indians won both the gold medals on offer on Monday with Gaurav Baliyan and Anita Sheoran registering comfortable victories in men's 74kg and women's 68kg categories respectively. With the two gold medals won on Monday, India made a golden whitewash in all 14 categories of wrestling.

Indian fencers also won all three gold medals on offer, winning the top prizes in men's team foil, women's team epee and women's team saber events. The country also had clean sweeps in kabaddi and basketball 3x3 as the men's and women's teams in both the disciplines won a gold medal each.

The Indian men's kabaddi team beat Sri Lanka 51-18 in the summit class to clinch gold while the women’s side also finished on top of the podium after defeating host Nepal 50-13 in the final. In shooting, India won a gold in the air pistol mixed event through the pairing of Anuraj Singha and Shrawan Kumar.

The Indian women's football team won its third consecutive gold medal at SAG after beating host Nepal 2-0 in the summit clash. Bala Devi was the star of the show again as she struck a brace on either side of the half time to guide India to a comfortable victory. The 29-year-old striker also ended as the top-scorer of the tournament, netting five goals in four matches.