COLOMBO: After beating Pakistan convincingly in the group stage, India failed when it mattered most losing to the arch-rival 3-2 in the final of the SAF Games.

At the half-way stage, the teams were locked 1-1 after Sardar Singh found the board almost at the stroke of half time to neutralise Shabbir Ahmed's fifth-minute goal.

Early in the second session, Imran Warsi put Pakistan ahead in the 37th minute off a penalty corner and he repeated the act six minutes later.

Gallant effort

A gallant effort by Vikram Kanth in the 60th minute only raised hopes, but success was not to be for the Indians.

Sri Lanka took the bronze with a 2-0 win over Bangladesh.

India had a rich haul of five gold medals at the shooting range on Friday.

Patiala's Harveen Srao set a new Games record by logging 382 points, a marginal improvement over the 381 that stood in the name of Shweta Chaudhary of India set in 2004.

Her personal though is 389. With a final shot of 98.5, she raised a total of 480.5, which also erased the existing mark of 477.5, again in the name of Shweta.

In the centre fire pistol event, Ashok Pandit won the gold. His 570-effort may not match Jaspal Rana's 2004 record of 582, but it was still good enough for the individual gold. India's other success story was in the 50m Rifle 3 Position, where Meena accumulated 570 points, eight short of her own record.

The results: Shooting: Men: 25m centre-fire pistol: 1. Ashok Pandit (Ind) 570; 2. Mohd. Boota (Pak) 567; 3. Maqbool Hossain Tabbasum (Pak) 565.

Team: 1. Pakistan 1695, 2. India 1682 (Pandit 570, Mahaveer Singh 563, Kanchan Gurung 549), 3. Sri Lanka.

Women: 50m Rifle 3 Position: 1. Meena (Ind) 663.5 (570+93.5), 2. Navdeep Kaur Dhillon (Ind) 658.3 (566+92.3); 3. Rajkumari (Ind) 656 (566+90).

Team: 1. India 1702 (Meena, Navdeep, Rajkumari), 2. Pakistan 3. Sri Lanka.

10m air pistol: 1. Harveen Srao (Ind) 480.5 (382+98.5, NR); 2. Navsheen Fatima (Ind) 474.6 (377+97.6); 3. Mehwish Maqsood (Pak) 470.2 (370+100.2)

Volleyball: Men: India bt Bangladesh 25-12, 25-22, 25-12; Sri Lanka bt Pakistan 23-25, 25-23, 20-25, 29-27, 15-11. Women: India bt Maldives 25-9, 25-10, 25-9.

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