By Zulfiqar Ghuman
ISLAMABAD: Sajjad Amin Malik of Pakistan made history when he shattered the previous weightlifting record set by an Indian to clinch the gold medal in the 105kg category of the 9th South Asian Federation (SAF) Games weightlifting competitions on Sunday.
Sajjad surpassed the mark of snatch and clean and jerk 145+180 = 340kg set by Manjit Singh of India in 1999 Katmundu Games in the 105kg category. Sajjad lifted 155kg in snatch, 185kg in clean and jerk totaling 340kg, all new records, to win gold for Pakistan. Alamdin Kakar won the 105kg and over competition to complete the Indian rout on the concluding day of weightlifting competitions. Pakistan won five gold and three silver medals to emerge out as worthy winners in an event dominated by the two nations since the inception of the games. India had to contend with three gold and five silver medals in the eight-body-weight-category-competition. Sri Lanka finished ahead of Bangladesh with five bronze medals.
Gurminder Singh of India also repeated the previous record (145+180 = 325kg) but was way behind Sajjad and settled for silver. The bronze went to Pradip Chandra of Sri Lanka with total lift of 262.5kg. Alamdin lifted 152.5+195=347.5 ahead of Vipon Kumar of India (152.5+170 = 322.5) who took the silver. Kavimda of Sri Lanka lifted (115+157 = 272.5) to collect the bronze medal. Two other Pakistanis, Shujaddin and Hasan Aslam also set new records in their respective categories on Saturday.
Pakistan beat Nepal, Sri Lanka in squash
Pakistan defeated Nepal and Sri Lanka while India downed Sri Lanka in the squash team events, played at Roshan Khan Squash Complex here on Sunday. In the first match, Pakistan beat Nepal 3-0. The second match was played between India and Sri Lanka. India also won 3-0. Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in the third match.
Swimming
Indian girls shattered records on the opening day of the women’s swimming with three new records. They won all the five gold medals up for grabs. Pakistan got three silvers and two bronze medals to end the day behind the Indians.
Reshma Millet set the tone for Indian dominance with the first gold in 50 metres butterfly shattering the record of 28.71 seconds held by her elder sister Nisha Millat in Katmandu in 1999. She covered the distance in 28.47 seconds ahead of two Sri Lankans Menaka de Silva (28.49) and Chathuri (29.48) who took the silver and the bronze respectively.
Sumi Cyriac, also from India, set new mark in 100 metres breast stroke in 1 minute and 10.16 seconds surpassing the previous mark of 01:11.07 of Dipeeka Chanmungam also of India set in Sri Lanka in 19991. Pakistan’s Kiran Khan (01:12.88) and Rubaba Raza (01:14.81) won the silver and the bronze respectively.
The third gold of the day was also won by India when Bhawana Sharm (1:20.94) followed by compatriot Mrudula Dhanraj (1:21.63) finished 1-2 in 200 metre breast stroke. Doli Akhtar of Bangladesh took the silver.
India won the fourth medal through Srivarnjani in 400 meters freestyle in 4 minutes and 36.08 second. Mahira ((5:14.70) and Ayesha (5:17.76) of Pakistan won the silver and the bronze.
The Indian quartet of Srivarnjan, Vijayamma, Richa and Resham completed the tally for India in 4x200 relay in 9 minutes and 12.68 seconds. Sana, Mahira, Aisha and Kiran covered the distance in 10:4.25 seconds to take the silver and Jayapradha, Piumi, Chatuuri and Madhavi of Sri Lanka (10:26.39) got the bronze.
Shooting
The star Asian shooter Jaspal Rana led the Indian pack followed by father-son combination in the center fire pistol to win all the three medals up for grabs.
Jaspal, who lost to Ronak in an earlier competition, this time made sure that nobody crossed him until the final shot was taken. He won the gold with 582 points. However, Ashok Pundit (578) had to use all of his experience to overpower none other but his own son Ronak Pundit (574) midway through to take the silver.
The Indian trio then took the team gold with 1734 total points followed by the team Pakistan comprising Irshad Ali, Zahid Ali and Kashif Riaz with 1691 points for silver. Gimini Walgama, WB Dasanayaka and GN Karunathialaka settled for bronze with 1643 points.
Rajkumari of India clinched gold in the 50 metres sports rifle prone with 589 points. Pushapmali of Sri Lanka (588) and Meena Kumari of India (587) points got the silver and the bronze.
The Indian trio of Rajkumari, Meeni and Sindhu took the gold with 1751 points. Pakistan grabbed the silver through Nazish Khan, Urooj and Nadia Saeed with 1738 points followed by Sri Lankan women Pushpamali, Mallini, and Dimithu at third place with 1709 points.
Pakistan-India football final today
Pakistan and India will fight for the top honours in the soccer final of the 9th SAF Games at the Jinnah Stadium on Monday (today). The match will be played under lights. Pakistan’s football team is enjoying advantage of home ground and crowd. India has the mental edge over Pakistan after winning the league match. Pakistan’s coach Tariq Lutfi said he was confident that his boys would win the final and clinch the gold for Pakistan. Lutfi said all the players of the team were in good form but it was necessary that every player should work hard for the attack. Pakistan defeated Bangladesh 6-5 on penalty kicks, while India outclassing lowly ranked Bhutan 4-1 in the semi-finals.
Athletics
In the athletics event, the runners from Sri Lanka, Anuradha Cooray and Ajit Bandharar, finished 1-2 in the SAF Games marathon on Sunday. Coorary finished the distance of 42 kilometres in 2 hours, 16 minutes and 38 seconds to clinch the first gold medal. Compatriot Ajit followed him 2:19:29 to bag the silver and Bahadur Basnet of Nepal took the bronze. Pakistan’s Naseer Ahmed, who’s previous best was 2:14:11, could not repeat his performance and finish at the 7th place with 2:34:24.
Badminton is all-India affair
Indian shuttlers eliminated their rivals to make the finals in all the categories of the badminton competitions. India now are ensured not to miss even a single badminton gold. They have already won the teams events. It is to be mentioned here that India had also made a clean sweep in badminton during the Katmandu Games.
Results:
Men’s singles: Cheetan Anand (Ind) beat Wajid Ali (Pak) 15-10, 15-4; Shyam Gupta (Ind) beat Udrp Kumara (SL) 15-13, 15-7.
Men’s doubles: Rupesh Kumar and M Bristow (Ind) beat Duminmda Jayakodi (SL) 15-10, 15-6 and Jaseel Ismael and JBS Vadayadhar (Ind) beat Umar Zeshan and Rizwan Rana (Pak) 15-11, 15-2.
Women’s singles: Trupti Murgunde (Ind) beat Pamisha Dishanthi (SL) 11-0, 11-1, BR Meemakshi (Ind) beat Renu Chandrika (SL) 11-8, 11-1.
Women’s doubles: Fatima Naznin and Manjusha Kanwar (Ind) beat Renu Chandrika and Pamisha Dishanthi (SL) 15-3, 15-4. Jwala Gutta and Sarah Kurien (Ind) beat Uzma Butt and Asma Butt (Pak) 15-3, 15-1.
Mixed doubles: Markose Bristo and Manjusha Kanwar (Ind) beat Thushara Yasalal and Renu Chandrika (SL) 15-1, 15-17, 15-10; Jasel Parves and G Jwala Gutta (Ind) beat Ali Yar Baig and Saima Manzoor (Pak) 15-4, 15-2.
Kabbadi final today
Pakistan will take on defending champions India in the kabaddi final at the Army Hockey Stadium today at 3:00 pm. Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi, who is also president of Pakistan Kabaddi Fedration, will be the chief guest on the occasion.