Indian athletes bag first 4 Gold in SAF Games

Colombo, Aug 24 (UNI) Indian athletes made a golden start, winning first four events on day one of the ongoing 10th SAF Games at the Sugathadasa Stadium here today. India so far, has collected 76 Gold, 41 Silver and 20 Bronze, taking its tally to 137.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan sprint queen and Olympic medallist Susanthika Jjayasinghe won the 200m Gold, clocking 23.00.

India had a perfect start to the campaign with Saroj Sihag hurling the metal ball to 14.96m in her second effort for the Shot Put Gold. She started with 14.74, followed up with 14.96 but soon there was a gradual decline, punctuated by a fouled fourth attempt.

Saroj, despite winning Gold, could not better Surinderjeet Kaur's 15.52m mark, created in the 1995 Games in Kathmandu.

Sri Lankan MN Muthunayaka won Silver (14.45), while Pakistani Zeenat Parveen won Bronze (14.07). Another Indian, Stephie Rikardoz, finished fifth in the event, with a poor hurl of 12.68.

S Shanti kept the momentum going by winning the 1500m Gold, clocking 4:14.26 even though her effort fell slight short of the existing 4:14.23 record created by Sunitha Rani in Kathmandu. Fellow Indian Sinimol Paulose (4:14.71) settled for the Silver, while Lankan DA Shanika Samanmali bagged Bronze at 4:30.61.

Hamsa Chatholi earned the third Gold for India, timing 3:44.50 in men's 1500m, ahead of the Lankan duo of WMCJ Wijekoon (3:45.60) and PC Chamal (3:53.73).

In men's 10000m, Indian duo of Surender Singh (29:41.30) and Reghunath Sadasivam (29:43.09) grabbed the Gold and Silver medals respectively, ahead of local favourite M Ajanthan (31:01.34).

No Indian, however, featured in the top two places in women's javelin throw with the Lankan duo of BL Nadeeka Lakmali (50.73) and Anne Maheshi De Silva (49.85) sharing the Gold and Silver and Indian Gurmeet Kaur came a distant third with 46.45 to finish with Bronze, ahead of Gurpreet Kaur who cleared 44.02.

Among all other events schedule tonight, men's long jump has been cancelled due to technical reasons, organisers said.

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