South Asian Games: India starts with a bang; wins 14 golds on opening day

Wrestlers proved to be the stars on Day 1 by bagging five gold medals among them to start India’s golden run at the South Asian Games. Rajneesh and Ravinder clinched the gold in the Men’s 65kg and 57kg categories respectively, while Priyanka Singh, Manisha and Archana Tomar won the top prize in Women’s 48kg, 60kg and 55kg respectively.

The Indians also bagged four golds and three silver medals from the swimming pool, with Asian Games bronze-medallist Sandeep Sejwal and Shivani Kataria winning the yellow metal in the Men’s and Women’s 200m freestyle respectively. The hosts added two more golds to their kitty through a the women’s 100m freestyle relay team and Damini Gowda’s win the women's 100m butterfly. Saurabh Sangvekar (men's 200m freestyle), Supriyo Mondal (men's 100m butterfly) and the men’s 100m freestyle relay team won the silver medals for India.

The hosts also won three gold medals in weightlifting and two in cycling to end the opening day with a total of 14 gold medals. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (women’s 48kg), Harshdeep Kaur (women’s 53kg ) and Gururaja (men’s 56kg) won the yellow metal for India in weightlifting while Tourangbam Bidyalaxmi won the women's 30km individual time trial event and Arvind Panwar in the men's 40km individual time trial added the gold medals in cycling. India also won two silver medals in cycling with Elangbam Chaoba Devi and Manjeet Singh finishing second in the women's 30km individual time trial and men's 40km individual time trial events.