India bags five athletics gold on day one

Rio Olympics bound shot putter Manpreet Kaur stole the limelight as Indians pocketed five gold medals from athletics on the opening day of the event in the 12th South Asian Games here today.
India won five gold, six silver and three bronze in the nine events held at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium. Sri Lanka gave a tough fight to the home athletes by winning four gold, one silver and five bronze.
Kaur bagged the first gold of the day for India by winning the women's shot put event with a throw of 17.94m. Her namesake, Manpreet Junior got the silver with a throw of 15.94m while W Fernando bagged the bronze in 14.87m in a four-woman field.

Railways shot putter Manpreet fell short by just two centimetres of touching her own national record of 17.96m which she set while qualifying for Olympics during the 55th National Open Athletics Championship last year.
Neeraj Kumar bagged the second gold for India in men's hammer throw with an effort of 66.14m. Pakistan's Shakeel Ahmed took the silver in 63.67m while L Alansan of Sri Lanka won the bronze in 46.38m.
Mayookha Johny took the gold in women's long jump by clearing 6.43m in his sixth and final attempt. Another Indian, G Shradha bagged the silver in 6.19m while N C D Priyadarshini of Sri Lanka, the season leader before the event, got the bronze in 5.89m.

In men's and women's 5000m races, Indians finished one-two. Man Singh won the men's 5000m in Games record time of 14 minute and 2.04 seconds while compatriot Suresh Kumar was second in 14:02.70. Nepal's Rimal Hari Kumar was third in 14:32.18.

In women's 5000m, L Surya clocked 15 minutes and 45.75 seconds to win the event in Games record time ahead of countrymate Swaty Gadhave who clocked 16:14.57 to bag the silver.
But the Indian disappointed in the 100m dash of both men and women with the Sri Lankas running away with the honours.
As expected Himasha Eashan of Sri Lanka won the 100m sprint in Games record time of 10.28 seconds to become the fastest athletes of the SAG. India's Gaurav Kumar finished a distant seventh in 10.96.

In the women's 100m, Sri Lankan R Rathnayaka sprinted her way to gold in 11.71 seconds ahead of India's Srabani Nanda (11.72) and Dutee Chand (11.75).
In women's 800m though, India's M Gomathi could win a bronze in 2:10.99.