13th SAG Concludes: Nepal Bags 51 Golds, India Leads!

Finally, the long-awaited 13^th South Asian Games (SAG) has ended on December 10, 2019.

This edition of SAG has been quite encouraging for Nepal as it won 51 gold medals, the highest the Himalayan nation has won in a regional sports event.

On the last day of the series of events, Nepal faced Bhutan in the men’s football at the Dashrath Stadium, where it bagged its 51^st medal after a 2-1 win.

With this, Nepal secured the second position in the SAG medals table, with 206 medals, 51 gold, 60 silver and 95 bronze medals.

However, the 13^th SAG winner was India with 312 medals including 174 golds, 93 silvers and 45 bronzes.

Next to Nepal was Sri Lanka in the third position with 40 golds, 83 silvers and 128 bronzes, followed by Pakistan (31 gold, 41 silver and 59 bronzes) and Bangladesh (19 golds, 32 silvers and 87 bronzes).

The Maldives made it to the sixth position with 1 gold and 4 bronzes, followed by Bhutan (7 silvers and 13 bronzes).

Overall, the event went on a grand scale with South Asian teams performing at their energy levels.

13th South Asian Games – Country-wise Medal Tally

Remarkable 13th South Asian Games Achievements by Nepal

• Swimmer Gaurika Singh emerged as the first Nepali athlete to have claimed 4 gold medals in a single SAG. This has never happened in the past.
• Santoshi Shrestha set a new record as the first female Nepali runner to win a gold in the 10,000 meters race in athletics. She did this in just 35 min 7.94 seconds.
• Kiran Singh Bogati bagged gold in the marathon, making this the first time for the country in SAG in the last 24 years.
• Sangita Dhami is now the first Nepali wrestler to have won an international medal in wrestling.
• Minu Gurung emerged as the first Nepali female boxer to have won a gold medal in South Asian Games.
• Gopi Chand Parki got a gold for Nepal in men’s 5,000-meter race, which happened for Nepal after almost nine years

After a long period of two decades, Nepal could finally win 33 golds in boxing.

Now, the next edition of SAG i.e. 14^th South Asian Games will be hosted by Pakistan.