Richa Mishra emerged queen of the pool

Islamabad: Ace swimmer Richa Mishra and pistol king Jaspal Rana crowned themselves with glory even as the rest of the Indian athletes, mostly second-rung, contributed to the country’s 191 medals in the ninth SAF Games that concluded here on Wednesday.

The theory that India are the ‘big brothers’ amidst mediocre sporting standards among the eight Saarc nations was once again clearly established. India’s best were absent in almost all the disciplines, either due to training schedules or to compete in Olympic qualifying events. Yet, the Indians were dominant at all the venues.

In athletics, the second-string comprising quite a few unknown names bagged 15 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals from 34 events. Their performance surpassed the pre-Games target.

The badminton and table tennis swept all seven golds (in each discipline) besides five silver each. The wide gulf in standards between India and their rivals was all too evident and there was never any doubt about the Indian supremacy.

In the kabaddi gold-deciding match, India led from the word go and were never under pressure. Led by captain Sanjeev Kumar, the Indians won by a convincing 21 points.

The pool proved a goldmine for Indians who scooped all but three of the 34 gold medals on offer.

Richa Mishra was adjudged queen of the pool for winning seven golds (including four in individual events) — all in record time — while Shivarajani collected four gold and four silver medals.

Rana stood out at the shooting range with his feat of eight medals, which included three individual golds besides four in team events and a silver. In the 10m air pistol event, though, Rana was beaten by his young and highly talented countryman Ronak Pandit.

Medallist beaten up

A Pakistani silver-medallist was beaten up by the local police when he tried to enter the Jinnah Stadium to watch the closing ceremony on Wednesday.

Basit Munir, part of the 4x400 relay team which finished second, was stopped by police and beaten up in front of his family after an argument. Munir had tried to enter the stadium without a security sticker on his car.