India bags a whopping 56 medals to breach the century mark at South Asian Games

By bagging more than half-century of medals, India consolidated its top spot in the standings. India secured its best medal haul on a single day so far to lead the medal tally with 62 gold, 41 silver and 21 bronze for a total of 124 medals. Second-placed Nepal has 36 gold, 27 silver and 38 bronze for a total of 101 medals and is followed by Sri Lanka (17 gold, 35 silver, 55 bronze).

India added 30 gold, 18 silver and 8 bronze on Thursday. The bulk of India’s medals came from swimming, wushu, weightlifting and athletics. India’s gold rush was triggered by wushu with seven yellow metals coming from it.

Suraj Singh fetched the first wushu gold of the day in men’s gunshu all-round event before Y Sanathoi Devi (women’s sansou 52kg), Punam (women’s 75kg), Deepika (women’s 70kg), Sushila (women’s 65kg), Roshibina Devi (women’s 60kg) and Sunil Singh (men’s 52kg) also clinched top spots in their respective events.

Swimming accounted for the most medals for India on Thursday with 11, of which four were gold. Likith Selvaraj Prema clocked 2 minutes and 14.67 seconds to win the men’s 200m breaststroke (short course) gold. India’s second yellow metal in swimming came from Apeksha Delyla Fernandes, who won the men’s 200m breaststroke (short course) with a timing of 2:38.05.

Divya Satija clinched gold in women’s 100m butterfly (short course), clocking 1:02.78, before the women’s 400m freestyle relay team finished on top of the podium with a timing of 3:55.17. Indians bagged four gold medals on the first day of weightlifting competitions. Jhilli Dalabehera lifted a total of 151 kg (66kg in snatch and 85kg in clean & jerk) to win the yellow metal in women’s under-45kg category. In the women’s under-49kg event, Sneha Soren bagged top honours. The 18-year-old lifted 68kg in snatch and followed it up with an 89kg effort in the clean and jerk category for a total of 157kg. In the women’s 55kg event, Sorokhaibam Bindyarani Devi emerged victorious. The Manipuri lifted a total of 181kg to grab top spot.

India’s fourth weightlifting gold of the day came from Siddhant Gogoi in the men’s 61 kg category for his effort of 264kg. Taekwondo players’ impressive show also continued as they gave India six medals -- 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. Purva Dattary Dixit (women’s 49kg), Ruchika Bhave (women’s 67kg) and Margaret Maria (women’s 73kg) bagged gold for India.

Track and field athletes had a relatively quieter day after leading from the front in the past two days as they pocketed only six medals, including one gold. Triple jumper Karthik Unnikrishnan was the lone gold winner as he cleared a distance of 16.47m. The Indian men’s kabaddi team began its campaign with a 49-16 success against Sri Lanka.