11th South Asian Games: Dhaka 2010 highlights

There were total 23 sports in the 11th edition of South Asian Games held in Dhaka.^[1] India who leads the medal tally clearly dominated in 13 sports, which are Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Judo, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, Weightlifting, Wrestling and Wushu. Host Bangladesh dominated in Golf and Karate while Pakistan and Afghanistan dominated in Squash and Taekwondo respectively. Among the team events, India won men and women Kabadi, women Football and Volleyball. Bangladesh won men Football and T20 Cricket, Pakistan won Hockey and Handball while Afghanistan won Basketball.

Following are the highlights of each of the sports:^[2]

Highlights

Archery – Men & Women

India made a cleensweep in this event winning all the 4 gold medals in the men and women events. Host Bangladesh was a distant second with two silvers.

Athletics (Track & Field) – Men & Women

India and Sri Lanka dominated the event with India taking 10 gold and 11 silver while Sri Lanka followed with 7 gold and 8 silver. Pakistan won 4 gold while Nepal winning a solitary gold in the event.

Badminton – Men & Women

India established its supremacy by taking away all the 7 gold medals in both men and women event.

Basketball – Men

Afghanistan won the gold medal by beating India in the final while Bangladesh claimed the Bronze in the Men Basketball event.

Boxing – Men

India won 3 gold medal followed by host Bangladesh with 2 gold and a silver. Pakistan won 1 gold and 1 silver.

Cricket – Men

Under-21 Cricket T20 was introduced for the first time in the SA Games, with Bangladesh emerged victorious beating Sri Lanka in the closely contested final. Pakistan won the bronze by beating Maldives. India, the other test playing nation of the region, did not participate in the event.

Cycling – Men & Women

India dominated with 3 gold and a silver while Sri Lanka won 1 gold and 1 silver.

Football – Men & Women

Host Bangladesh reclaimed the regional supremacy by winning gold medal in the most one-sided final in the history of the game. They beat the surprise package Afghanistan in the final by 4–0. Bangladesh won each of their matches without conceding a single goal in their 5 matches including the final. Afghanistan, who rushed in to the final for the first time in this regional showpiece, was unbeaten till the final registering wins against the likes of India, Maldives and the defending champion Pakistan. Maldives won the bronze by beating India.

In the women football, India won the gold medal beating Nepal in the final while Bangladesh claimed the bronze.

Golf – Men

Host Bangladesh made a clean sweep in both team and individual event. Team Bangladesh won the gold beating India and Sri Lanka who won silver and bronze respectively. In the Individual event, Bangladesh bagged all the three medals.

Handball – Men

Pakistan won the Handball gold beating India in the final. Bangladesh won the bronze.

Hockey – Men

Pakistan beat their arch-rival India in the final through tie-breaker to win the gold medal in hockey. After the teams ended the regular and extral time with 1–1 draw, Pakistan comes superior through penalty strokes by 4–3. Bangladesh edged past Sri Lanka to win the bronze.

Judo – Men & Women

India won 5 gold and 1 silver while Pakistan won 3 gold and 3 silver in Judo. India won both the gold medals in women's category while the men's glory were shared equally between India and Pakistan each winning 3 gold each.

Kabadi – Men & Women

India maintained their supremacy in this regional sports by winning gold in both men and women event. Pakistan won the silver in men's category while Bangladesh bagged the silver in the women's Kabadi.

Karate – Men & Women

Bangladesh won 4 gold and 1 silver followed by Nepal with 3 gold and 2 silver. Afghanistan won two gold while Pakistan and Sri Lanka won 1 each. In men's event Nepal and Afghanistan won two gold each while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have 1-a piece. In the women's event, host Bangladesh dominated with 3 gold while Pakistan and Nepal shared the remaining two.

Shooting – Men & Women

India dominated in both men's and women's event bagging 19 out of 22 gold medals along with 8 silver medals. Host Bangladesh won the remaining 3 gold medals with 6 silvers.

Swimming – Men & Women

India and Sri Lanka dominated the pool with India winning 11 out of 12 gold in men's event, while 5 out of 7 in women's event. They also won 5 silvers in the men's and 2 in the women's category. Sri Lanka won 3 gold and 6 silver.

Squash – Men

Pakistan maintained their supremacy in Squash winning both gold and silver in individual event and gold in the team event. India and Bangladesh won silver and bronze respectively in team event.

Table Tennis – Men & Women

India made a clean sweep by winning all the 7 gold medals in this sports. They also won 5 silver medals. Sri Lanka claimed silver in both men and women team event.

Taekwondo – Men & Women

Afghanistan won 3 gold in men's event and 1 silver in women's while Nepal won 1 gold and 1 silver each in men's and women's event. India won two gold in men's event, while Bangladesh won equal number of gold in women's event. Sri Lanka won 1 gold in women's event.

Volleyball – Men

India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka won the gold, silver and bronze respectively in Volleyball.

Weightlifting – Men

India won 3 gold and 1 silver followed by Pakistan, who won 2 gold and 3 silver. Sri Lanka won 2 gold and 2 silver while Bangladesh won 1 gold and 2 silver.

Wrestling – Men

India won 3 gold and a silver in Wrestling while Pakistan won 2 gold and a silver. Afghanistan won 1 gold and 2 silver.

Wushu – Men & Women

India won 4 gold and 3 silvers, followed by Nepal with 2 gold and 2 silver. Bangladesh and Pakistan won 2 gold each.

References