long-distance runner Kavita Raut's Olympic qualification was the icing on the cake on yet another impressive day for India with the host country staying miles ahead of rivals on day seven of the 12th South Asian Games here on Friday.
Holding on firmly to the top spot in the overall standings, India increased their tally to 249 — including 146 gold, 80 silver and 23 bronze medals. Following the hosts at the distant second position was Sri lanka with 157 medals, including 25 gold, 53 silver and 79 bronze medals.
It was the last day of competitions for athletics and Kavita made it special by qualifying for the Rio Olympics in women's marathon.
The 30-year-old Raut easily clinched the marathon gold in 2 hours 38 minutes and 38 seconds to become the fourth Indian women to have qualified for Rio Games women's marathon. O P Jaisha, lalita Babbar and Sudha Singh have already qualified for women's marathon in Rio Olympics.
Nashik girl Raut is the lone athlete to have qualified for the Olympics from the 12th SAG.
Another Rio Olympics-bound Nitender Singh Rawat took the men's marathon gold in 2:15:18 seconds in a close finish in a star-studded field. He won the race by being merely a second ahead of Indrajith Cooray of Sri lanka who has also qualified for Rio Games.
With on Friday's two gold and one bronze, India ended the athletics competition with 28 gold, 22 silver and 9 bronze medals.
A similar script unfolded in the shooting ranges with Rio Olympics-bound Chain Singh stealing the limelight by grabbing his second yellow metal. In fact, Indians ran away with all the four gold medals on offer.
The 26-year-old Chain upstaged his senior team-mate Gagan Narang to win the men's 10m air rifle event with a total score of 204.6 to add to his 50m rifle prone gold. Gagan had to be content with a bronze.
The trio of Chain, Narang and Imran Khan won the gold in the team event with a total score of 1863.4.
In the men's individual 20m standard pistol event, Indians ran away with all the medals on offer. Neeraj Kumar bagged the gold with a total shot of 569.
The trio of Neeraj, Gurpreet and Mahender then won the team gold with a total score of 1698.
With seasoned campaigners such as M C Mary Kom and Shiva Thapa leading the charge, India will fancy all 10 gold medals up for grabs when the boxing competition gets underway. India have fielded a star-studded team of seven men and three women in 10 weight categories.
The South Asian Games may not offer them much in terms of tough competition but it is certainly a decent build-up before the Indians head to the Asia/Oceania Olympic Qualification tournament in Qian'an, China from March 23. So far, none of the Indian boxer has booked an Olympic berth.
The much-celebrated Mary Kom (51kg) will be the cynosure of all eyes in event.
Another Manipuri boxer who will be keenly watched is l Sarita Devi (60kg), the Asian Games bronze-medallist, who is also on a comeback trail after completing a one-year ban for an infamous emotional meltdown following her semifinal loss in Incheon.
Pooja Rani (75kg), another Asiad bronze-winner, makes the third member of the women's squad.
The men's team is equally star-studded, featuring among others, World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva (56kg), Commonwealth Games silver winners l Devendro Singh (49kg) and Mandeep Jangra (69kg).