Indian athletes bag 3 gold at South Asian Games

Bibin Mathew clinched the top honours in 400 metres event as Indian athletes picked three gold, five silver and four bronze medals on the second day of their campaign in the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka on Sunday.

On a day when Lankan athletes dominated the track and field events bagging four gold, India's bright spots were Mathew, javelin thrower Kashinath Naik and G Gayathry who dashed the hopes of local girl Sumita Rani for the gold in 100m hurdle.

Pakistani athletes bagged two gold medals.

India thus have six gold, seven silver and six bronze at the end of second day of athletics.

India disappointed in relay events which were dominated by Lankan athletes who clinched both the men's 4x100m and women's 4x100m gold medals.

In fact, India drew a blank in women's 4x100m relay even as the men's quartet bagged the silver to avoid blushes.

In the men's 400m, India bagged one gold and one bronze.

Mathew clocked 47.25s for the gold, while Prasanna Sampath of Sri Lanka took the silver with a timing of 47.36s. Shake Mortaja earned the bronze for India with a timing of 47.53.

However in the women's 400m, India's Priyanka Pawar (54.98) missed the gold by a whisker and had to settle for a silver as Sri Lanka's Chandrika Subasini pipped her clocking 54.27s. India also bagged a bronze in women's 400m through Ashwini AC Akkunji (55.51s).

In javelin throw, Naik had a tough contest with Muhammad Imran of Pakistan before the Indian with a throw of 74.27m was awarded the gold medal. India also bagged the bronze through Samarjeet Singh who threw a distance of 71.65.

In the women's 100m hurdles, Gayathry (13.98s) beat local challenger Sumita (13.99) for the gold medal. Bangladesh bagged the bronze through Jasmin Akhter (14.05).

Sahana Kumari bagged silver in women's high jump with an effort of 1.79m, Priyangika Madumanthi of Sri Lanka jumped 1.81m for the gold while Dulangalee Kumari (1.72m) took the bronze.

India had to be content with silver and bronze medals in the men's 110m hurdles as the gold was won by Pakistan's Mohsin Ali (14.56s). Sandeep Parmar (14.76) and P Muthuswamy (14.88) bagged the silver and bronze respectively.

In triple jump also India's Saurab, with a jump of 15.27m, lost out the top slot to Pakistani's Zafar Iqbal (16.05m), while Lanka bagged the bronze through Nishan Kumara (15.19).

In men's 4x100m relay, Sri Lankan quartet of JI Fernando, S Saearuwan, A Hasaranga and S Weerasuriya clocked 40.02s for the gold, while India's M Qureshi, Arunjith, Naseema Manzile and Ritesh Anand had to settle for silver with 40.18s.

Maldives bagged the bronze with a timing of 41.39.