Out-of-form Rana dominates with eight golds

“It is good to win eight gold medals for the country. But I am not very happy with some of the scores that Rana brought here,” Thomas said.

The 26-year-old Rana won both the individual and team golds in the four pistols events he took part — standard pistol centre fire pistol, rapid fire pistol and air pistol — to do the bulk of the medal grabbing for the Indians in the competitions.

The Indian marksmen who had bagged 20 golds, 40 silvers and7 bronze medals in the last SAF Games in Chennai, completed their engagements with 21 golds, 10 silvers and eight bronzes leaving their opponents far behind in the medal tally.

Spikers scintillate

But for one off day when Indian men lost to Pakistan, the spikers came up with a scintillating display and did what was expected of them — winning both the men’s and women’s volleyball titles in the eighth SAF Games.

The Indian guns boomed when it came to crunch, annihilating Pakistan 25-19, 25-17, 25-18 to win the title, while the women maintained their clean slate with an all-win record to win gold.

In the end it was 1-1, with India winning on the big occasion for the gold.

Paddlers sweep

Indian paddlers proved they were superior to their South Asian neighbours, making a clean sweep of the table tennis events.

Instead of fielding its top players, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) could think on sending its junior players which would also serve as an international exposure to them. Such was the dominance of the Indian team that even the second string team would have achieved similar result.

In a repeat of the 1995 SAF Games performance, Indian players made mincemeat of the toothless opposition, bagging all the seven golds — men’s and women’s team championship, men’s and women’s singles and doubles besides the mixed doubles to stamp their authority.

What is more, the senior players stood to gain by playing against teams which could not even provide a semblance of fight.

Barring the exit of top-seeded pair of S Raman and Poulomi Ghatak to unseeded Pakistani due of Asim Quereshi and Roohi Ghazala in the mixed doubles, which only cost a silver, the Indian were fighting among themselves for the gold and silver.

Top seeded Baboor, the only Indian to be ranked among the top 100 in the world, won the men’s singles title defeating his doubles-mate S Raman after losing the opening game to bag his first individual gold in the SAF Games. However, it was Anindita Chakraborty who justified the faith reposed on her by coach Kamlesh Mehta.

Picked purely on the basis of her current form and performance, the National Games runner-up created a mild flutter defeating her compatriot top seed Poulomi in straight sets for the women’s title.

India started their whitewash by bagging the men’s and women’s team championship and then the paddlers held sway over the rest of the field to enable India finish 1-2 in both the singles and in the doubles event.

India which finished with four silvers — two in the doubles and two in singles — could have added one more, but for the exit of Raman and Poulomi in the mixed doubles, which was won by the other Indian combination of Baboor and Montu Ghosh.