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Journalism of Courage
India8217;s Fariah Zaman set a new Games record in the women8217;s 100m backstroke with a time of 1:09.05 seconds and Varun Divigikar became the fastest swimmer in the SAF Games when he won the men8217;s 50m freestyle in 23.97 seconds. Sandeep Sejwal, Surabhi Tipri and V Tejaswini won the gold in men8217;s 100m breaststroke, women8217;s 800m freestyle and women8217;s 200m Individual Medley respectively.
The Indians also won the gold in the women8217;s 4X100m freestyle relay with the team of Arpana Magdum, Neeraja Balakrishna, Parita Parekh and Lekha Kamath. Sri Lankan Andrew Abeysinghe, however, prevented a clean sweep for India when he left Rehan Poncha far behind in the men8217;s 200m backstroke.
Joshna, Dipika in final
India today assured themselves of a 1-2 finish as Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal qualified for the final of the women8217;s individual squash event. Joshna had an easy 9-3, 9-0, 9-5 win over Tehani Guruge, while Dipika won 9-7, 9-6, 9-3 over Nirasha Guruge. The men however, were no match to the Pakistanis, with both Harinderpal Sandhu and Gaurav Nandrajog going down in the semi-finals.
Two gold medals in shooting
Indian shooters opened their medal count with a two-gold haul in the 25 meter sports pistol event. Anisa Syed claimed the individual top honours, firing 749.6 points. In the team championship Anisa, Shilpi and Nausheen won the medal with a cumulative score of 1643.
Women paddlers win gold
India8217;s women paddlers staved off a spirited challenge from hosts Sri Lanka to claim the team gold with a razor-thin 3-2 win in the final. Mouma Das restored parity in the second game after Poulumi Ghatak had lost the opener. Nandita Saha8217;s loss put India back again before Ghatak and Das won the fourth and the deciding fifth games to give India the win.
Shuttlers move into semis
India8217;s women shuttlers moved to the semi-finals of the badminton team championship with a 5-0 whitewash of Nepal. Trupti Murgunde gave India the lead with a 21-16, 21-7 thrashing of Sumina Shreshtha. B R Meenakshi won 21-7, 21-14 over Sara Devi. Krishna Deka Raja breezed past Samthana Khaling 21-4, 21-3. Oli Deka/Aparna Balan and Jwala Gutta/Shruti Kurien won the doubles.
Hari Krishan sure of medal
Boxer Hari Krishan assured India of another medal after the referee stopped his semi-final contest against Nepal8217;s Anil Dahal 23-3 when the former was leading 23-3. However, Som Bahadur Pun went down to Pakistan8217;s Faisal Kareem on points in a close 64 kg clash.
