Women volley team wins Gold, Binning claims Bronze in marathon

Colombo, Aug 27 (UNI) Indian women spikers tamed a gritty Sri Lanka 27-25, 25-20 and 25-20 to win the volleyball Gold in the 10th SAF Games here today.

Despite it being a straight set win for India, Sri Lanka fought tooth and nail in the match, cheered by a full house partisan crowd at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium.

Pakistan beat Bangladesh 25-11, 25-15, 25-17 to win the Bronze in the event.

Meanwhile, in the final athletics event of the Games, India finished with a Bronze as L Binning came third in marathon. The Indian clocked 2:29.16 for his Bronze and finished behind Sri Lankan AM Ajith Bandara(2:25.40) and Nepal's Arjun Kumar Basnet (2:28.10).

The other Indian in the fray, KC Ramu did not finish the race.

In the eves' volleyball final, both India and Sri Lanka matched each other shot by shot and went neck-and-neck with the score reading 20-20.

Frequent time outs were not enough to cool the nerves and India eventually managed to take 23-21 lead before the Lankan eves bagged next three points to go 24-23 up but Priyanka came up with a quick one to level the score.

The lanky hitter was also instrumental behind two blocks that saw India won the set 27-25. Things looked easier for the Indian eves in the second set as they raced to a 19-12 lead before relaxing a bit and allowing their opponents to claim six of the next seven points and Sri Lanka eventually reduced to the gap to 21-19.

That came as a wake up call for the Indians and Jhililata Sena's spike clinched the second set.

Despite being down 0-2, the hosts simply didn't give up in the third set as well. Trailing 11-16, they made it 18-18. But the Indian eves bagged seven of the next nine points as Aswani Kumar's powerful spike crashed on the Lankan court to wrap up the match in India's favour.

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