SA Games: Mahfuza, Simanta bring gold medals

Bangladeshi athletes Mahfuza Khatun and Mabia Akter Simanta won gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games in India today.

Mahfuza won gold in 100m Breast Stroke (women) event in swimming this afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Simanta won gold medal in 63kg (women) weightlifting event.
 

Simanta, who won gold in 63 kg during Commonwealth Youth competition managed to lift 149kg in total to clinch the gold medal from India’s Veena at Guwahati’s Bhogeshwari Phukanani Indoor Stadium, reports our staff correspondent.

The champion weightlifter from Bangladesh lifted 67kg during snatch and 82kg during clean and jerk.

Yesterday, Rina Akhter earned the first silver medal for Bangladesh in the 12th South Asian Games in India in 60kg wrestling (women) event.

With Simanta and Mahfuza’s success, Bangladesh now has 18 medals in the bag, with 13 bronze, three silver and two gold medals so far.

The South Asian Games 2016 is a major multi-sport event taking place from February 5 to February 16 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes are scheduled to compete in 228 events over 23 sports.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the tournament in Guwahati on February 5.