India ended its campaign at 2019 South Asian Games with its best-ever medal extending its domination in the regional multi sports-event with another top-finish at the South Asian Games. India finished SAG 2019 campaign with a record 312 medals to finish on top for the 13th consecutive time at the regional event. India's 312 medals accounted for 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze medals and helped it surpass the 309 medals it had won in 2016. Hosts Nepal, over a 100 medals behind India, came second in the medal table with 206 medals, while Sri Lanka finished third in the standings with 251 medals. Sri Lanka, despite winning more total number of medals than Nepal, came third on account of winning less number of gold medals. South Asian Games 2019: India End SAG Campaign in Wrestling With 14 Gold Medals.

South Asian Games 2019, officially called the XIII South Asian Games, is a biennial multi-sport tournament organised by the South Asia Olympic Council (SAOC) is played by athletes from South Asia. As many as seven nations will be participating in the 2019 South Asian Games, which will held in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Janakpur cities of Nepal. The South Asian Games (SAG) originally has eight members with Afghanistan opting out of this year's tournament. The countries participating in South Asian Games 2019 are hosts Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. South Asian Games 2019 Live Streaming & Schedule in IST: How to Watch Kabaddi & Other Sporting Events Free Live Telecast of South Asian Games in India Online.

A total of 28 sports will be played at the 2019 South Asian Games (SAG) with cricket – one of most popular and hugely followed sport in Asia – making a return after an eight-year gap. Golf and Karate are the two new sports added into the multi-sport event. Both the games sports were added by the host Nepal as a game of their choice. Meanwhile, swimming will be the sport with the most number of events (20), while Athletics with 19 has the second most number of events. Archery, Badminton, Cricket, Football, Golf, Kabaddi, Shooting, Boxing, Tennis, Weightlifting, Volleyball, Wrestling, Judo, Handball, Basketball, Athletics, Karate, Kho-Kho, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Triathlon and Wushu are the games set to be played at the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal.

Interestingly, Paragliding, which was initially included as a sport and was supposed to make its debut at the SAG, was removed after only two nations – Nepal and Pakistan – registered competitors for the event. The rule states that at least four participants should be registered for a sport to be included in the multi-event.

South Asian Games 2019 Medal Tally Updated

Sr. No Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 India 174 93 45 312
2 Nepal 51 60 95 206
3 Sri Lanka 40 83 128 251
4 Pakistan 31 41 59 131
5 Bangladesh 19 32 87 138
6 Maldives 1 0 4 5
7 Bhutan 0 7 13 20

(South Asian Games 2019 Medal Table Updated Till Dec 9 at 12:00 AM IST)

A total of 2,715 athletes are registered to compete in the tournament. Hosts Nepal have registered the highest number of participants for the South Asian Games. A total of 596 athletes from Nepal will participate followed by Sri Lanka, who have 564 competitors. India have registered the third-highest number of participants for the tournament in Nepal. As many as 487 athletes will represent the tri-colour in multiple sporting events in the tournament. Bangladesh is next with 470 athletes, followed by Pakistan (266), Maldives (216) and Bhutan, who is 116 number of participants have come to Nepal with the least number of athletes.

India have won the most number of medals in the history of South Asian Games (SAG). In 14 editions of the multi-sport event, India has clinched a total of 2086 medals, which has 1100 gold, 651 silver and 345 bronze medals. Pakistan are second best with 1151 medals (329 gold, 417 silver and 398 bronze), while Sri Lanka are third with 1143 (220 gold, 361 silver and 562 bronze) medals. Maldives (13) have won the least number of medals with four silver and nine bronze medals. They are yet to win a single gold medal. Bhutan is the only other nation, apart from the Maldives, to win less than a 100 medals. They have a total of 71 (2 gold, 16 silver and 53 bronze) medals.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 04, 2019 10:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).