Indian swimmers claim four golds: Penalty goal sinks Pakistan in soccer
By Imran Naeem Ahmad
ISLAMABAD, March 30: After Monday's vibrant opening, action began in earnest in the SAF Games with Pakistan picking up three gold medals in karate on an eventful first day of competitions.
Ghulam Ali struck gold in the individual kata at the Army Gymnasium in Rawalpindi where Sarwar Hossain of Bangladesh grabbed silver while Nepal and Sri Lanka were the bronze winners.
Ghulam then joined his mates Khalid Noor, Farman Ahmed and Noorullah to give Pakistan another gold in the team event, leaving Sri Lanka in second place. Nepal and Bangladesh had to be content with bronze.
A third gold came through Shah Muhammad who outclassed M. Abdul Mannan of Bangladesh in the 55kg class to help Pakistan make an encouraging start on day the hosts won a total of eight medals including four in swimming and one in shooting.
But India, who have always claimed the most medals since Games first began in 1984, had a particularly fruitful day, gold-wise starting their chase by picking up five, one in shooting and another four in the pool.
Their success in swimming came through Rehan Poncha in the 200m individual medley who clocked 02:15.37 with Gairik Bardhan, timing 02:28.95 in 200m breaststroke.
Competing in the 200m backstroke final, Akbar Ali Mir was home in 02:14.26 and Mandar Divase took the honours in 400m freestyle, an event in which Pakistan took the silver via Mumtaz Ahmed and a bronze through Mehboob Ali.
Zulfiqar Ali earned another bronze for the home team in the 200m individual medley with Imdad Ali's effort also worth a similar medal in the 200m backstroke final.
Apart from a silver and three third-place medals, the hosts also captured a bronze in the team event of 10m air rifle competition.
Dawood Jan and Muhammad T. were the successful shooters in an event where India clinched the gold and Bangladesh the silver.
In the individual 10m air rifle event, Bangladesh bagged their first gold, 18-year-old Muhammad Asif scoring 693.6 to leave Sanjeev Razafat and Haneefa Saleem behind.
At Liaquat Gymnasium, Pakistan, except for the first set, did not have to exert much, scoring a 25-17, 25-1, 25-8 victory over Nepal in the three-team Group B that also has Sri Lanka in the volleyball event.
India, rated joint favourites along with the hosts, had an easy day on court outclassing newcomers Afghanistan 25-14, 25-12, 25-12 while Bangladesh defeated Maldives 15-25, 25-15, 25-15, 25-20 in a Group A game.
Elsewhere, India edged Pakistan 1-0 in a football preliminary at the Army Stadium in Rawalpindi, Debabrata Roy converting a penalty in the 70th minute of play. In this Group A game, played at a fast pace, both sides missed chances with India's Mal Sawma wasting at least four.
Pakistani goalkeeper, Jaffar Khan, who is also the team captain did remarkably well in goal thwarting a number of rival attacks.
Bangladesh with a first half brace from Mehdi Hasan beat Afghanistan 2-1 for whom captain Raza was the scorer in another match.
India and Bangladesh now have four points each in Group A while Pakistan have three. Sri Lanka with three points lead the other group. In the men's badminton team tournament at the Rodham Hall, Pakistan made a winning start edging Sri Lanka 3-2 with Ahsan Qamer winning his singles against UDRP Kumara 17-14, 15-4 after Niluka Karunaratne had beaten Wajid Ali to give his side the lead.
The doubles match saw home players Umer Zeeshan and Rizwan Rana beat the pair of Karunaratne and Chameera Kumarapporuma 15-8, 15-12.
Then Ali Yar Baig and Ali Ishaq combined to outpoint Duminda Jayakody and Thushara Edirisinghe 15-3, 15-10 while Waqas Ahmed was given a walkover against Niroshan John.
Nepal scored a narrow 3-2 victory over Bangladesh, their player Kiran Thapa brushing aside Muhammed Mahbubur 15-13, 15-7 and then Pashupati Paneru outplaying Anayet Ulla Khan 15-4, 15-4.
Nepal were awarded a walkover in the doubles before Ram Thapa edged Mostafa Mohammed Jabed 17-15, 15-13 in the last singles.
Medals table at the end of first day (gold, silver, bronze, total)
