Indian gymnasts excel

ALLAHABAD, March 1: Vikas pandey pipped Rohit Yadav to claim the overall individual men's title while Tumpa Debnath was crowned the women's ...

ALLAHABAD, March 1: Vikas pandey pipped Rohit Yadav to claim the overall individual men8217;s title while Tumpa Debnath was crowned the women8217;s champion on a day when the Indians made a clean sweep of medals in the overall events of the inaugural SAARC Gymnastics Championships, which concluded here today.

Vikas finished the meet with three gold and two silver medals and Tumpa bagged two gold and one silver, besides the team gold they won on the inaugural day to stamp their authority.

The hosts picked up a haul of 14 gold, 12 silver and two bronze medals for an overall tally of 28 medals. Sri Lanka grabbed the second spot with a collection of two silver and six bronze while Bangladesh found themselves a slot below with four bronze.

The fourth participants, Nepal, who were without their women squad, had to be contend with two bronze medals.

In a battle of nerves in front of a 10,000-strong crowd, Vikas clinched the issue with a sterling performance on his favourite apparatus, the parallel bar, which provedto be decisive in getting the gold for him.

An event before that, Rohit had wrested the lead in the vault by scoring 8.050.

As Vikas later conceded, he knew that his only chance was in the parallel bar which, apart from being his favourite, was also the last of the apparatus to prove his superiority over his training partner. Rohit gave full credit to his team-mate but added that he found a problem in gripping.

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As for Tumpa, she knew she wiould be the champion. 8220;I was aware of the strength of Poonam Chabra and I took things as they came. I never computed the scores, nor did I lose heart when I found the gripping painful in the uneven bar,8221; said the girl who trains at the Salt Lake SAI Centre in Calcutta. Tumpa has a cut web that she suffered on the first day.

Though Poonam failed to earn more than 7.700 in her favourite event, the floor exercise, she made up for the loss by scoring 8.150 on the beam where Tumpa performed far below her potential. Rajendra Prasad also picked up his first individualmedal when he finished third in the overall championship, logging 47.525 points. Neeru, who has a gold and a silver, added a bronze to her personal tally as she came third in the overall individual category. She scored 30.650 points.

Results: Individual Men: Vikas Pandey 48.075, Rohit Yadav 47.725, Rajendra Prasad 47.525.

Individual Women: Tumpa Debnath 31.450, Poonam Chabra 31.100, Neeru Jabalia 30.650.