COLOMBO : India's relentless march continued in the table tennis event of the South Asian Games as the women took the team gold, beating host Sri Lanka 3-2, at the St. Thomas College Hall on Sunday. Nepal and Pakistan won the bronze.

India made a near hash of the final against the host and it was left to National champion Mouma Das to give the finishing touch after the score was tied 2-2.

Bad start

India started on a wrong note with Poulomi Ghatak losing to Deepika. Mouma restored parity but Nandita Saha went on to lose. Poulomi made amends in her second singles before Mouma played the stellar role.

Earlier in the semifinals, India and Sri Lanka had swept aside Pakistan and Nepal 3-0 respectively.

In badminton, India expectedly stormed into the final in both the men's and the women's sections.

Double delight

In shooting, India picked up both the individual and team gold in the women's 25m pistol event at the Sri Lanka Naval base range. Anisa Sayyed logged 749.6 points (553+196.6) to take her first international gold.

Damayanthi Wijeratne and Hemantha Wijesinghe of Sri Lanka took silver and bronze.The team gold was won thanks to Anisa's effort (553), along with Shilpi Singh (545) and N. Fathima (544).

In squash, India is assured of a gold and a silver in the women's section with Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal entering the final. They beat the Sri Lankan Guruge cousins, Tehani 9-3, 9-0, 9-5 and Nirasha 9-7, 9-6, 9-3 respectively.

However in the men's section, Pakistan's supremacy went untouched with the title-round not having an Indian in the fray.

Mansoor Zaman made short work of Harinder Pal Singh 9-0, 9-2, 9-1, while Aamir Atlas defeated Gaurav Nandrajog 9-2, 9-2, 9-2.

The results:

Table tennis: Women: Final: India bt Sri Lanka 3-2 (Poulomi Ghatak bt Deepika 11-8, 11-13, 7-11, 12-14; Mouma Das bt Kalpani 12-14, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4; Nandita Saha lost to Ishara 11-6, 11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 8-11; Poulomi bt Kalpani 11-9, 13-11, 11-7; Mouma bt Deepika 11-9, 11-6, 11-13, 7-11, 12-10).

Semifinals: India bt Pakistan 3-0 (Mouma bt Rahila Kashif 13-11, 13-15, 11-5, 11-4; Poulomi bt Knawal Iqbal 11-2, 11-2, 11-6; Shamini bt Ghalia Khurshed 11-2, 11-7, 11-1); Sri Lanka bt Nepal 3-0.

Badminton: Men: Semifinals: India bt Nepal 5-0 (Chetan Anand bt Balram Thapa 21-11,21-18; Nikhil Kanetkar bt Pashupati Paneru 21-14, 21-17; Thomas Kurien bt Anil Kumar 21-3, 21-6; Akshay Diwalkar & Jushnu Sanyal bt Indra Manath & Ramsingh Choudhary 21-12, 21-13; Sanave Thomas & V. Diju bt Balram Thapa & Pashupati Paneru 21-7, 21-11); Sri Lanka bt Pakistan 3-2.

Women: Semifinals: India bt Nepal 5-0 (Trupti Murugunde bt Sumina Shrestha 21-16, 21-7; B.R. Meenakshi bt Sara Devi 2-7, 21-14; Krishna D. Raja bt Samjana Khaling 21-4, 21-3; Oli Deka & Aparna Balan bt Sara Devi & Nary Thapa 21-13,21-5; Jwala Gutta & Shruthi Kurien bt Sumina Shrestha & Samjana Khaling 21-5, 21-11); Sri Lanka bt Pakistan 5-0.

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