The cynosure of all eyes was the petite 15-year old Mumbai schoolgirl Lekha Kamath, who added two more gold medals to her kitty. There are two more events for her and maybe Lekha has more to offer.
Lekha started the good tidings with her pet event, the 100 m butterfly, by posting a new Games record. Her 1:04.51s effort bettered existing mark of 1:05.82 set by Richa Mishra in Islamabad two years ago.
Her next gold was in the 100m freestyle where her immediate rival was team-mate Neeraja Balakrishna.
Neeraja actually did a better first 50m but Lekha caught on and surged ahead to touch the pad first at the end.
Though Arjun Muralidharan bagged the 100m butterfly gold, he could not make it a double as Sri Lanka's Andrew Abeysinghe edged him out in the100m backstroke with a record effort.
Joshna Chinappa defeated Dipika Pallikal 9-6, 9-6, 9-1 in the all-India final for the women's singles squash gold.
Tehani and Nirasha of Sri Lanka got the bronze.
In the men's section, Mansoor Zaman defeated Aamir Atlas Khan 9-6, 5-9, 7-9, 9-4, 9-0.
India's Harinderpal Singh and Gaurav Nandrajog got the bronze.
Women shooters excel
On the second day of the shooting events, India bagged the individual and team golds in the women's 10m air rifle competition. Radhika Barale did herself proud with her second international success.
Though her effort of 394 was below her personal best of 397, it helped Radhika win the team gold along with Navdeep Kaur Dhillon and Raj Kumari. Actually Radhika and Navdeep had accumulated 394, the latter slipped in the final shots.
The outcome of the day's second event, the 50m pistol for men, was held over pending disposal of a technical protest by India.
Beginning well
The hockey event, revived after the 1995 Chennai edition, started off well for the reigning champion India, which beat archrival Pakistan 2-0 in the four-team competition (Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the other two) at distant Matale.
Dominating from the start, India earned the first goal through a 33rd minute penalty with Raghunath being the scorer. The second goal came in the 64th minute through Gurbaj Singh.
Clean sweep
By winning the remaining three gold medals at stake, India bagged all the seven in the two-day rowing competition. The streak started with BEG Rourkee's army man Anil Kumar's effort in the lightweight men's single scull (07:24.99s). This is the first international gold for this 21-year old who is in the Asiad camp being held in Hyderabad.
B. Manu Mathew and S. Bijender Singh emerged the winner in the lightweight men's double scull (06:46.88).
The final gold came in the men's coxless four where B. Narajan Singh Rathore, Haridev Kadyan, Saji Thomas and S. Manjeet Singh clocked 06:12.64s.
The results:
Swimming: Men: 100m butterfly: 1. Arjun Muralidharan (Ind) 56.67s, 2. Ahmed Jewel (Ban) 58.89, 3. Nasir Ali (Pak) 59.37; 100m backstroke: 1. Andrew Abeysinghe (SL) 1:00.11 (NR, Old: 1:01.26, Banu Sachdeva 1995), 2. Arjun Muralidharan (Ind) 1:00.50, 3. Sandeep (Ind) 1:00.76; 4x 100m freestyle: 1. India (Amar Muralidharan, Rohi Havaldar, Sandeep and Khade) 3:37.41, 2. Bangladesh 3:44.64, 3. Sri Lanka 3:44.92.
Women: 100m butterfly: 1. Lekha Kamath (Ind) 1:04.51 (NR, OR: 1:05.82, Richa Mishra (Ind) 2004), 2. Miniruwami Samarakoon (SL) 1:11.85, 3.Eesha Khan (Pak) 1:16.29; 100m freestyle: 1. Lekha Kamath (Ind) 1:00.76, 2. Neeraja (Ind) 1:02.17, 3. Mayumi Raheem (SL) 1:02.85; 50m backstroke: 1. Fariha Zaman (Ind) 31.70, 2. Kiran Khan (Pak) 32.25, 3. Rubab Raza (Pak) 33.41; 400m IM: 1.Tejaswini (Ind) 5:16.21, 2. Madhavi (Ind) 5:21.72, 3. Mayumi Rahee (SL) 5:26.21.
Shooting: Women's 10m air rifle: 1. Radhika Barale (Ind) 498.1 (394 +104.1), 2. Sharin Akhter (Ban) 493.4, 3. Navdeep Kaur Dhillon (Ind) 490.2; Team: 1. India 1175 (Navdeep 394, Radhika 394, Raj Kumari 387), 2. Bangladesh 1154, 3. Pakistan 1147.
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