South Asian Games REVIEW: India top medal charts with record-breaking tally of 308 medals

For the 12th successive time, none could match up to India's regional might but the host country's record-breaking medal haul of 308 can hardly hide the fact that the standard of competition in the South Asian Games has failed to rise significantly.

This was the best performance by any country in the Games' 32-year history but what is worrying for the relevance of the event is that it has been reduced to an Indian show of dominance for most part.

This time too, the Indian athletes ran away with 188 gold, 90 silver and 30 bronze medals. The host country bagged more than three-fourth of the total 239 gold on offer in the February 5-16 showpiece.

Sri Lanka were a distant second with 25 gold, 63 silver and 98 bronze while Pakistan finished at third with 12 gold, 37 silver and 57 bronze.

The only edition in which India's domination was near comparable was the 1995 Games in then Madras where India won 106 gold -- just less than three-fourth -- out of 143.

India has always finished on top in all the 1 editions of the SAG so far but the domination this time was unprecedented with clean or near clean sweep in boxing, archery, tennis, badminton, table tennis, shooting, athletics, wrestling, swimming, weightlifting, cycling, judo and wushu.

The Indians also bagged both the men's and women's gold in traditional sports of kabaddi and kho-kho, and in handball and volleyball, besides picking all the three gold on offer in triathlon.

Taekwondo was the only discipline in which India had to settle for the runners-up place behind Afghanistan. The Indians bagged five gold, three silver and two bronze medals, while Afghans had a tally of 6-1-1 in taekwondo.

The biggest disappointment for India was their failure to win a men's hockey gold since the 1995 edition as they lost yet again to arch-rivals Pakistan in the summit clash.

Pakistan thus claimed their third gold on the trot having won in 2006 and 2010 editions, beating India on both the previous occasions as well.

The women's hockey team, however, easily claimed the gold by mauling their opposition teams.

Indian men's football team also failed to win the gold, losing to Nepal in the final in front of a football-crazy crowd of Guwahati. The women's team though won the gold in the final international match of star Manipuri player and
captain Oinam Bembem Devi who hung her boots after an illustrious career spanning two decades.

Star shooter Gagan Narang, who won a bronze in the London Olympics in 10m air rifle, took part in all the three rifle events but failed to pick up any gold. He won a silver in the 50m rifle prone and a bronze in 10m air rifle before settling for a silver in 50m rifle 3 positions.

Other Rio Games bound shooters Gurpreet Singh (men's individual 25m rapid fire pistol) and Apurvi Chandela (women's 10m air rifle) won their respective events. Heena Sidhu, another Olympic quota holder, performed below par to bag a silver in women's 10m air pistol event.

Prakash Nanjappa (men's 50m pistol) finished fourth as he took part despite taking antibiotics due to an eye problem.

In boxing, 2012 London Olympics MC Mary Kom led a perfect 10 for India in the ring in the discipline conducted by the AIBA-appointed ad hoc committee with the national body derecognised.

Even as the seating capacity was limited to just about 500 at the SAI Complex in North Eastern Hill University Campus in Shillong, there was huge excitement with crowd pullers in Mary Kom (51kg), L Sarita Devi (60kg) and Shiva Thapa (56kg) among others winning gold.

In archery as well, the Indians clinched all the 10 gold medals on offer  with another four silvers in their incredible effort.

The Indians bagged all the five gold medals up for grabs in recurve section while they fetched another five yellow metals introduced for the first time.

Making a comeback after the 2014 Asian Games, Tarundeep Rai retained his Games individual title to finish with a hat- trick of gold along with Deepika Kumari as the duo also won the mixed pair and their respective team events.

The host country also made a clean sweep of gold medals in badminton despite the absence of star shuttler and Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap who pulled out at last minute.

Rising star Ruthvika Shivani created the biggest upset by stunning P V Sindhu in straight sets to win the women's singles gold as India bagged seven gold and five silver.

In wrestling, the home team grapplers simply annihilated their opponents as they scooped 14 gold medals out of a total of 16 on offer.

Despite being represented by a second string team, the Indian wrestlers proved too strong for their South Asian neighbours as they won a whopping 14 gold and two silver.

India won gold in all the eight women's categories while their men counterparts won six gold and two silver. Pakistan won two gold.