ISLAMABAD, 1 April 2004 — Indian swimmers set two new records for the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games and maintained an unbeaten winning streak by snatching all four gold medals on offer yesterday.
They have now won all the eight gold medals in as many men’s events held in the last two days of the competition. Rehan Poncha set a new SAF Games record on his way to winning a gold medal in the 200m butterfly. He clocked 2 minutes 07.10 seconds, bettering the previous best of 02:07.68 minutes set by his compatriot K. Suresh Kumar in the 7th SAF Games held in the Indian city of Madras, renamed Chennai. Indian swimmers also set a new record in the 4x200m freestyle relay. They timed 08:05.76 minutes, comprehensively beating their own record of 08:10.91 set at the 7th SAF Games in Chennai in 1995. The other two gold medals were grabbed by Puneet Rana in the 50m breaststroke and Sujith T.A. in the 50m freestyle.
Their Pakistani counterparts have so far managed three silvers and four bronze.
