Boxers join shooters, India remains miles ahead

Guwahati, India: The Indian juggernaut rolled on unabated as the star-studded boxing squad joined the shooters in what is turning out to be an outing of unprecedented dominance by the host country at the 12th South Asian Games here on Saturday.
Indian shooters grabbed all the six gold medals on offer while triathlon players joined the party by winning both the gold as the hosts swept aside the challenge from other countries.
In the ring, star boxers Devendro Singh and Shiva Thapa bludgeoned their way to convioncing wins over their hapless opponents, Tashi Wangdi of Bhutan, and Nepal's Shrestha Dinesh, respectively. Asian gold medallist Vikas Krishnan also tasted success on the first day of event. India stood atop with 265 medals (155 gold, 84 silver and 26 bronze), way ahead of second placed Sri Lanka 161 (25, 55, 81). Pakistan were at third with 79 medals (8, 26. 45).
In the capital city of Assam, there were just eight medal events and the Indians won all of them -- six by shooters and two by triathlon players.
Omkar Singh (men's 10m air pistol), Rahi Sarnobat (women's 25m pistol) and Anjum Moudgil (women's 50m rifle 3 positions) grabbed a gold each while India also bagged the top spot in all the three team events to simply brush aside their rivals at the Kahilipara Shooting Range here.
The home country's domination in shooting was such that in the three individual events of the day, India swept all the medals in two while winning a gold and a bronze in the remaining one.
Pakistan's Kaleemullah (men's 10m air pistol) was the lone non-Indian to get a medal on Saturday in shooting, bagging a silver.
With Saturday's show, the star-studded Indian shooting team, which has six Rio Olympics bound shooters, has taken its tally to 18 gold, 8 silver and 8 bronze in four days. Two days are left in the competition.
The day also saw Olympics bound Gurpreet Singh coming up with a disappointing performance in men's 10m air pistol as he finished sixth in the event won by compatriot Omkar who shot 198.8. Another Indian, Jitendra Vibhute, bagged the bronze.
Omkar, Gurpreet and Jitendra then took the team gold in men's 10m air pistol event with a total score of 1735. Pakistan (1700) and Sri Lanka (1663) took the silver and
bronze respectively.