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Record double by Sunitha Rani

Twenty-year-old Sunitha Rani raised India's dipping hopes with a record-breaking double gold triumph, even as Sri Lanka's Damayanthi Darsha made clean sweep of the sprint events to win her third gold, on the third day of the athletics competition at the eighth South Asian Federation Games in Kathmandu today.

After a dismal show yesterday, India fared reasonably better today, winning five of the seven golds at stake to take their gold tally in athletics to 15. Two of those five gold medals came through the efforts of Sunitha, who won the women's 1,500 metres and 10,000 metres posting new records of 4 minutes, 14.23 seconds and 34 minutes 38.72 seconds respectively.

Besides Sunitha's efforts, two more records were sent into oblivion when India triple jumper Sanjay Kumar Rai won the gold, clearing 15.87 metres, and Damayanthi posted a new time of 22.68 seconds in the women's 200 metres, which was decided by a photo finish, the winner being decided by one thousandth of a second.

However, the day wholly belonged to the tall lass from Punjab. Earlier in the morning, she displayed great endurance to win the energy-sapping 10,000 metres while erasing Sri Lanka Sujeewa Nilmani's record of 35 minutes, 42.74 seconds, set in 1995 at the Chennai Games. The latter won the silver with a time of 36:00.46 seconds, while Pushpa Rani of India won the bronze in 37:37.46 seconds.

Sunitha, who now concentrates only on the 1,500 and 5,000 metres, was off late not participating in this 25-lap race. After she won the 10,000 metres at the 1998 international meet in Delhi, she last participated in the gruelling event at the Imphal National Games. She was entered for this event only to boost the country's medal chances and rose admirably to the occasion, winning by almost a lap.

Showing no signs of fatigue, she came back strongly in the afternoon to win her pet 1,500 metres race, also in record time. She bettered Rosa Kutty's 4:19.65, set in 1995, with a time of 4:14.23 seconds. She clearly dominated the three-and-a-half lap race, winning by at least 75 metres, ahead of compatriot Molly Biju, who clocked 4:27.47 for the silver. Sri Lanka's K Samarakoon finished third in 4:36.65 seconds.

Damayanthi Darsha added the 200 metres gold to her 100 and 400 metres haul with a forget-me-not effort of 22.68 seconds. She outpaced ageing Indian star P T Usha, who had to be content with the silver once again.

The first 100 metres saw both Darsha and Usha involved in a neck and neck race. However, the Sri Lankan gained a slender lead on the final bend and accelerated in the home stretch to win by a good four-metre margin. Vinita Tripathi of India won the bronze.

The men's 200 metres witnessed a close race, with Pakistan's Maqsood Ahmed winning in a photo-finish ahead of Mahbub Alam (Bangladesh) and India's Ajay Raj Singh. Though both Maqsood and Mahbub clocked 21.15 seconds each, the winner was decided by virtue of a thousand of a second. Bangladesh sought a clarification on the photo finish from the chief technical delegate from the International Amateur Athletic Federation, P Solomon. He took the Pakistan and Bangladesh officials and showed them the photo finish result.

India's Ajay Raj Singh and Anand Menezes tried hard but finished third and fourth respectively. While Ajay clocked 21.16 seconds, Anand timed 21.19 seconds.

Sanjay Kumar Rai, who performed below par in the long jump yesterday, was at his best in the triple jump as he bettered B D Vinod's 1995 record of 15.83 metres by .04 metres to win the gold. Sri Lankan N S S Wardena also bettered the SAF Games record, clearing 15.85 metres, but had to be content with the silver. Pakistan's Banaris Khan won the bronze with a jump of 15.57 metres.

Gulab Chand made it a happy day for India by winning the 1,500 metres as expected. Sri lankan S Jaiveera and Sher Aahmed (Pak) won the silver and bronze respectively.

Nisha Millet wins fifth gold

Indian swimmers continued to the rule the pool. Nisha Millet won her fifth gold with yet another record-breaking effort, but the men's 4x200 metres freestyle quartet were disqualified from the event.

India, who was expected to sweep all the six golds on offer today, had won five before they were disqualified in the last event.

According to team sources, the Indian team was clearly 15 seconds ahead in the final timing. But the reasons for disqualification were not known. The team manager might lodge a protest if he is not convinced with the reasons for disqualification. This left Pakistan win the gold, while Sri Lanka and Nepal bagged the silver and bronze respectively.

India's gold tally after three days of competition in the swimming pool thus swelled to 15.

Nisha continued to reign supreme. She and her compatriot Shikha Tandon finished one-two in the women 200 metres freestyle, clocking 2 min 12.37 seconds and 2:14.87 respectively. Both bettered the existing record of 2:20.10, set by Dipika Chanmugham of Sri Lanka in 1991 Games. Sri Lanka's Daluwatte Redeesha won the bronze.

Zeba Wadia of India accounted for another record, in the women's 100 metres breaststroke, on her way to her second gold. Wadia won with a time of 1:10.09, sinking Dipi Chanmugham's (Sri Lanka) mark of 1:19.92, set in 1991. Shikha Tandon won the silver in 1:21.23 seconds and Doli Akhter (Bangladesh) won the bronze.

Gold for lifters Sandeep Kumar, Satish Rai

As expected, India won both the golds at stake on the second day of the weightlifting competition.

While Sandeep Kumar won the 69 kg gold by virtue of lesser body weight after he came strong in the jerk category to tie with Pakistan's Wais Akbar with a total of 282.5 kg, Satish Rai won the 77 kg gold with a total lift of 320 kg (snatch 142.5, jerk 177.5 kg).

It was indeed a creditable display by Sandeep Kumar after he managed just 125 kg in the snatch and trailed Akbar by 7.5 kg in the snatch. Akbar cleared 132.5 kg in his third attempt, while Sandeep, after clearing 125 in the second, faltered with 127.5 kg in his third and final lift.

But he asserted his supremacy in jerk, clearing 157.5 kg in the second, while Akbar just managed 150 kg in his second lift. Though both Sandeep and Akbar faltered in the third and final attempt while attempting 162.5 kg and 155 kg respectively, Sandeep's effort of 157.5 kg helped him tie with his rival. Then lesser body weight tilted the scales in the Indian's favour. Sri Lanka's Dammika Padma Kumara won the bronze with a total of 265 kg.

It was a easy round for Satish Rai. In the snatch he cleared 142.5 in the second lift to take a big lead over his Pakistan rival Iftikhar Qaiser, who managed 130 kg. In the jerk, Rai stretched the lead, clearing 177.5 kg in his second attempt. Iftikhar cleared 160 kg in his first attempt and lost in the next two, making things easy for the Indian.

Satish won the gold with a total lift of 320 kg, while Iftikhar settled for silver with 290 kg. Sri Lanka's A E Wijewickrema won the bronze with a total of 250 kg.

UNI