India's gold conquest on in South Asian Games

It was all too familiar a tale of Indian gold conquest at the South Asian Games today, as the nation's swimmers, rowers and shooters picked up a bounty of medals on the fourth day of the competition here.

Consolidating their position on the leaderboard, the Indians boosted their overall tally to 39 gold, 14 (rpt 14) silver and six (rpt six) bronze, leaving hosts Sri Lanka a poor second.

The athletes from the emerald island have culled six gold, 15 silver and 23 bronze, while Pakistan occupied the third place with a collection of 4-13-14.

The Indians won 15 gold medals during the day, nine of which came from the water -- swimming contributing six and rowing three.

Indian shooters maintained their clean sweep over gold in shooting, raking in four more from the ranges while squash and table tennis provided one each.

In swimming, 15-year-old Lekha Kamat scooped up her fourth gold medal on her international debut, adding the 100m butterly title with a new Games record and then clinching honours in the 100m freestyle.

Arjun Muralidharan brought further cheers to the Indian camp picking up a gold in men's 100 mt back stroke besides helping his nation garner another in the 4x100 mt freestyle relay. The team, comprising Arjun Muralidharan, Rohit Havaldar, Sandeep Na and Verdhaval, clocked 3:37.41 for a top podium finish.

In women's 50 mt back stroke, Fariha Zaman added another yellow metal to the medal count, while V Tejaswani and compatriot Madhavi Giri ensured a 1-2 finish in women's 400 mt individual medley.

The Indians' bid for a clean sweep of gold was thwarted by the gutsy Sri Lankan Andrew Abeysinghe, who scaled the top podium in men's 100 m back stroke. He had won one gold yesterday also.

The rowers did what their brethren in swimming could not. They captured all the seven gold at stake in the competition, winning the three races in lightweight boats scheduled for the day.

Anil Kumar annexed the men's singles scull title, while the l double scull gold was claimed by Manu Mathew and Bijender Singh.

Narayan Singh, Haridev Kadyan, Saji Thomas and Manjit Singh then combined to row away to glory in coxless fours,

The Indian shooters were on track to emulate the rowers.

Winning four gold medals during the day, the Indians have so far swept all the six yellow medals that have been disposed of till late.

In women's 10m air rifle, Radhika Barale shot to glory to take the individual honours, besides ensuring the team gold for the nation along with Raj Kumari and Navdeep Kaur Dhillon.

The Indians also claimed the team gold in men's 25 mfree pistol, with Amanpreet Singh emerging champion in the individual contest in the same event.

In squash, top-ranked Joshna Chinappa took the gold with a straight 9-6, 9-6, 9-1 annihilation of Deepika Pallikal.

The paddlers completed the golden saga, by winning the men's team championship defeating Sri Lanka 3-1.