Sharath, Mouma win individual TT Gold

Colombo, Aug 23 (UNI) Indian paddlers proved head and shoulder above their regional rivals and the duo of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Mouma Das bagged the individual Gold medals in the Table Tennis event of the 10th SAF Games here today.

In men's singles final, Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal hardly broke a sweat as he tamed team mate Soumyadeep Roy 4-0. Soumyadeep proved just no match and Sharath maintained his vice like grip over the match to chalk out a facile 4-0 win for the Gold.

In women's singles final, dimunitive Mouma Das was in control of the proceedings and despite dropping a game in between, she walked away with a 4-1 win to win the Gold.

After pocketing the first two games 11-1 and 11-6, an element of complacence seemed to have crept in her show and her Sri Lankan rival Deepika Rodrigo reduced the gap winning the game 11-8. That worked as a wake up call for Mouma and the Kolkata girl went for the kill, winning the next two games 11-4, 11-5 to seal the issue.

Deepika had beaten India's Poulomi Ghatak 4-2 in the semifinal.

It was a poor show by the seasoned Indian who could not produce her best and allowed her opponent to run away with the match 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 3-11, 11-8.

Meanwhile, Pakistani shooter Maqbool Hussain marred the Indian party first by winning the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event with a record breaking total of 746.8 that also erased Jaspal Rana's 670.9 mark created in Islamabad in 2004.

Another Pakistani, Afsar Khan (739.4) won the Silver, while Indian shooter Ram Kishen finished with the Bronze totalling 736.3(551+185.3).

India finished behind Pakistan in the Team 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event as well. Pakistan were a clear winner with 1652, while the Indian trio of Ram Kishan(551), Ashok Pandit (545) and Harpreet Singh (533) aggregated 1629 to finish with the Silver, ahead of Sri Lanka (1435).

In Kabaddi league matches, Indian men's team beat Sri Lanka by 37 points while the eves defeated the hosts by 36 points.

In squash league match, the Pakistani men proved too tough for their Indian counterpart all of whom suffered straight game defeats.

Mansoor Zaman dropped just three points before thrashing Gaurav Nandrajog 9-0, 9-0, 9-3, while Amir Atlas Khan toyed with Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu before scripting a 9-1, 9-0, 9-7 win and Yasir Ali Butt destroyed Prath Sharma 9-7, 9-0, 9-6.

India's medal tally stands at 121 with whopping 68 Golds, 38 Silvers and 15 Bronze.

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