GOLDEN GIRLS OF INDIA: India's 4x100m women's medley relay team cool off at the National Swimming Complex in Mirpur after winning the gold in the 11th South Asian Games yesterday. Photo: Amran Hossain

India left the pool in style by sweeping all four gold medals on the final day of swimming competition of the 11th South Asian Games at the National Swimming Complex in Mirpur yesterday.
The Indian natants made it sure that no other national anthem would be played on the podium yesterday as they won the women's 50m freestyle, men's 50m breaststroke, women's 4x100m medley relay and men's 4x100m medley relay events. India clinched 16 gold out of a total of 19. Besides, they grabbed seven silver and two bronze. Sri Lanka was the only other nation to win gold in the competition. Six different silver medals were to show off as far as Bangladesh is concerned. Sri Lanka also took four silver and six bronze medals.
In the end it was a frustrating journey for the hosts with the fact that the Bangladeshi swimmers this time had trained for a long period of time under the guidance of South Korean coach Park Taegun, and most importantly they practised in their own pool.
It was heartbreaking to see the near misses by Mahfuza Khatun who had to finally be content with silver medals in the women's 50m and 100m breaststrokes. Bangladesh finished with 10 more bronze apart from the six silver medals.
Three Indian natants Sandeep Sejwal, Virdhawal Vikram Khade and Shubha Chittaranjan came up with double delights by winning two gold medals while Sri Lankan Minekasashmini Natasha Karunarathne, who mainly denied India of making a clean sweep, was the other swimmer to have clinched two gold.
A total of eleven new Games records were set over four days in the eleventh version of the competition.
On the final day only one record was set in the men's 50m breaststroke when Indian Arjun Jaya Prakash clocked 00:30:04sec to leapfrog previous best timing of 00:30:43sec made by Bangladesh's Shajahan Ali Rony in the 2006 Colombo Games.
Rony failed to even match his previous record as he finished on 00:31:04sec to secure the silver and Bangladesh's Kamal Hossain bagged the bronze at 00:31:05sec.
In the women's 50m freestyle, India's Shubha Chittaranjan clinched gold by clocking 00:27:98sec while her compatriot Sheha Thirugnana Sambandam bagged the silver (00:28:67sec) and Sri Lankan Madhawee Kaushalya Kalurachchilage finished with 00:29:78sec to confirm the bronze.
Fariha Zaman, Gauri Desai, Richa Mishra and Talasha Satish Prabhu combined to clock 04:41:55sec to clinch the gold in the women's 4x100m medley relay while Gihara Sachini Amarasinghe, Mineka Karunarate, Miniruwani, Madhawee Weerathunga of Sri Lanka finished with 04:52:24sec and Bangladesh earned the bronze by clocking 04:55:94sec with Sobura Khatun, Doli Akhter, Mahfuza Khatun and Sonia Akter Tumpa.
In the men's 4x100m medley relay, India's Rehan Poncha Jehangir, Arjun Jaya Prakash, Agnel Aaron D'Souza and Virdhawal Vikram Khade clocked 03:58:76sec for gold while Bangladesh's Kamal Hossain, Rubel Rana, Jewel Ahmed and Mahfizur Rahman finished with 04:00:39sec for silver and Heshan Bandara Unamboowe, Diluka Thibbtumunuwe, Conrad Anthony Francis and.Chanuka Bandara Wickramasinghe of Sri Lanka clocked 04:07:04sec for bronze.