India sign off 12th South Asian Games with 308 medals

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India remained dominated on the final day of the South Asian Games as they ended the tournament as champions for the 12th consecutive time after bagging a total of 308 medals.

Sri Lanka finished the tournament at the second spot with 186 medals ahead of Pakistan, which held on to the third spot with a final tally of 106 medals .

On the final day, Pakistan and India evenly shared the four gold medals between themselves in the judo competition here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Sports Hall on Tuesday.

For India, Pooja (women's under-70kg) and Avtar Singh (men's U-90kg) bagged gold, while Fouzia Mumtaz (women's U-78kg) and Hussain Shah (men's U-100kg) took first place for Pakistan.

Pooja first took down WAPRL Jayarathne of Sri Lanka before beating Beenish Khan of Pakistan in the final bout. Jayaratne and Ganga Chaudhary (Nepal), who lost to Beenish in the last-four, were awarded bronze.

Hussain Shah took the gold for Pakistan in the U-100kg men's final in less than 90 seconds over his Indian opponent Shubham Kumar. Shiva Bahadur Baram (Nepal) and M Tawfiq Bakhshi (Afghanistan) were awarded bronze.

Nepal was the only other country to come away with a gold, won by Phupu Lhamu Khatri in the women's U-63kg category yesterday.

The hosts clinched nine gold medals in total, along with three silver on the final day. Pakistan's two golds were their only top finishes in the discipline, but they also leave with two silver medals and eight bronze.

Nepal also claimed two silver and six bronze medals. Among the other countries, Afghanistan took four silver and two bronze, while Sri Lanka took one silver and six bronze. Bangladesh finished with two bronze, while Bhutan, who sent a very young team comprising only four members, ended without any medals.

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In boxing, after the men had scooped all the seven gold medals on Monday, the women ensured to make a clean sweep on Tuesday.

Olympics bronze-medallist MC Mary Kom, former world champion L Sarita Devi and Pooja Rani clinched the gold meda in their respective categories to make it a perfect 10 for India in boxing at the NEHU, SAI Special Area Games in Shillong.