ISLAMABAD, April 5: Indian Piyush Kumar became the top sprinter in South Asia on Monday while on the women's side that honour went to Sri Lanka's Jani Chathurangan on a day Pakistan's Nadeem Ahmad landed the hammer throw gold in the 9th SAF Games.

The exciting 100m sprint, the showpiece event of the Games saw Piyush zoom past the finish in 10.44 sec ahead of countryman Vilash Nalgunde who was home in 10.62 followed by Pakistan's Muhammad Shahbaz, whose 10.67 was his personal best.

In an original field of eight runners, Sri Lanka's Umanga Surendra was disqualified following two false starts leaving seven to fight it out for gold. The women's sprint was as thrilling as the men's race, with Chathurangan first across the line in 11.81, improving upon her previous best time of 11.92. India's KM Greeshma claimed the silver with an effort of 11.96 and Poonam Tomer was third for the bronze, finishing in 11.98.

Pakistan's day began with a gold and silver in hammer throw, courtesy of Nadeem and Habibullah in this early morning event in which India's Nirbhay Singh took the bronze.

Nadeem went 62.88 edging Habib whose distance of 62.85 left Nirbhay content with a bronze at 62.77. Nadeem, the proud winner of the gold said that it was not a personal honour. "I have done it for my country and God-willing will continue to do well in future competitions."

"I had trained hard for this and I am delighted that all the efforts I made in the run-up to the Games have paid off." Pakistan had a tally of seven medals on Monday in the track and field events with one gold, two silver and four bronze medals. The gold was the host nation's third so far after the success earlier of Noushad Khan in 5000m and Allah Ditta's fine show in the 400m hurdles.

Ranvijay Singh and Kulwinder Singh, both from India dominated men's shot put in which the hosts had a bronze through Ashraf Ali who went 16.41 metres. Ranvijay's attempt of 17.41 had gold written all over it as he beat his compatriot Kulwinder whose effort was that of 16.71m.

It was gold and silver for Sri Lankans Rohan Pradeep and Parsanna in the 400m with the bronze going to Pakistan's Saghir Ahmad Rana. Pradeep's gold run finished in 45.89 while it took Prasanna 45.95, his personal best, to bag the silver. Saghir, who clocked 45.95, also bettered his previous best of 47.31.

S. Geetha of India was crowned the women's 400m champion in 52.25 leaving Chitra K. Soman (52.43) also from India and Bangladesh's Nazmun Nahar (55.46) behind for the silver and bronze. All three runners were able to improve their previous marks.

Madhuri Singh, another Indian hogged the spotlight by winning the 1500m women's gold. She crossed the finish in 4:31.16 followed by Pakistan's Sumera Zahoor who was timed in 4:31.41. Preeja Sreedharan got the bronze in 4:32.24.

Sri Lanka's Upendara Bandara was the winner of the 3000m steeplechase gold, clocking 8:57.04 with Nepal's Rajendra Bahadur following closely in a time of 8:57.30. Pakistani runner Safdar Nazir who finished in 9:10.55 grabbed the bronze.

Sri Lankans clinched the gold and silver in the men's high jump, Manjula Kukmara taking the top position with a clearance of 2.20m and also breaking the Games record in the process. He erased the mark set by India's N. Annavi at Kolkata in 1987. Nalin Priyadarshana went 2.11 for the silver while Omveer Singh (1.99) was third.

The women's high jump honours went to India's Sangeetha Mohan who cleared the bar at 1.81, her compatriot Sahana Kumari finishing second with a jump of 1.75 followed by Sri Lankan Priyangika Maduwanthi whose clearance of 1.69 earned her the bronze medal.

Medals table (read as gold, silver, bronze, total):

India 87 45 22 154