Francis checks India's blitz

India's domination in swimming at the ninth SAF Games was challenged on Friday by Sri Lanka's Conrad Anthony Francis, who won the men's 50 metres butterfly.

The race was a close affair but the Sri Lankan showed tenacity to pip India's Rahul Batra by 0.03 seconds. Francis clocked 26.11 secs to Batra's 26.14 secs.

India had till then won all the gold medals on offer in the pool and Francis's performance dashed all hopes of a clean sweep.

On Friday, India could claim only two of the three gold medals up for grabs, taking their tally to 15 gold, three silver and a bronze.

Rehan Poncha, with four gold medals to his credit, created a new mark in the 100m breaststroke with a time of one minute 07.93 secs. It is the second meet record he set at the ongoing Games.

Poncha had earlier sunk the 200m butterfly mark.

Earlier today, Amar Muralidharan led the Indian medal hunt, winning the 200m freestyle with a timing of one min 59.46 secs. He was followed by Mehboob Ali of Pakistan and Arun Karunaratne of Sri Lanka who won the silver and bronze respectively.

Results:

100m breaststroke: 1. Puneet Rana (Ind) 1:07.93 secs NGR (Old:Deepak singh - 1:09.03 secs, Kathamandu 1999), 2. Conrad Anthony Francis (Sri Lanka) 1:08.63 secs, 3. Gairk Bardhan (Ind) 1:08.64 secs.

200m freestyle: 1. Amar Muralidharan (Ind) 1:59.46 secs; 2. Mehboob Ali (Pak) 2:02.37 secs; 3. Arun Karunaratne (Sri) 2:4.19 secs.

50m butterfly: 1. Conrad Anthony Francis (Sri) 26.11 secs, 2. Rahul Batra (Ind) 26.14 secs; 3. Md.Jewel Ahmed (Bangla) 26.19 secs.