Dhaka: Shooters Surendra Singh Rathod and Om Prakash and paddler Madhurika Patkar etched their names in the record books as India finished on top with 90 gold, 55 silver and 30 bronze medals to end its dominating journey in the 11th South Asian Games here on Tuesday.
One hundred and fifty eight gold medals were on platter in 23 events as India, who took part in 22 events, picked 90 of them to give themselves a big boost ahead of the Commonwealth Games (October) and Asian Games (November).
The best campaign in the Bangladesh edition came in shooting where India rode on Rathod and Om Prakash's dominating show to bag a commanding share of 19 gold, nine silver and five bronze medals.
Swimmers followed suit as they shattered 10 new meet records, including two each by Veerdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal, en route to a share of 16-6-2.
The Indian swimmers who went into the record books included Khade (50m freestyle and 50m butterfly), Sandeep Sejwal (100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke), Rehan poncha (200m IM), Shubha Chittaranjan (50m butterfly), Aaron d'Souza (100m free), A V Puttaveeraswami (400m freestyle), Balakrishnan Badrinath (50m backstroke) and Arjun Jayaprakash (50m breaststroke).
However, India's biggest disappointment would be losing to arch-rivals Pakistan in hockey, where they went down in the tie-breaker to settle for silver.
In men's football, India drew blank after losing to Maldives in the bronze play-off but the eves made it up by taking the gold in their event.
India ruled the roost in badminton and table tennis, picking seven gold and five silvers each.
Madhurika hogged the limelight on the concluding day as she finished with a total haul of four gold medals (women's team, women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles).
In boxing, India had the smallest contingent in Amandeep Singh (men's 48kg), Suranjoy Singh (51kg) and Chhote Lal (57kg) and the trio emerged champions in their respective categories to fetch three gold.
Archers had a four men and four women team and all of them returned with medals as they also dominated the field pocketing 4-1-1.
In athletics, despite a strong opposition from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, India managed to finish on top with a share of 10-12-8. The silver lining was in 4x400m relay where India broke the monopoly of Lankans, picking both the men's women's gold medals.
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India failed to get a gold in 100m dash, where Shehan Abeypitiya of Sri Lanka and Naseem Hamid of Pakistan became the sprint stars, but the brightspots came in 400m (Bibin Mathew), long jump (Harishankar Roy) and javelin throw (Kashinath Naik).
India also won the 200m gold (Abdul Najeeb Qureshi), 100m hurdles (G Gayathry), 5000m (Sunil Kumar), long jump (Mohammad Ibrar) and (400m hurdles) B Thyagarajan.
In team events, India fared average clinching the gold in volleyball.
India suffered a loss to Pakistan in handball to settle for silver and also lost to Afghanistan in basketball final to be contended with silver. They had further disappointment in store in golf where they managed just one silver.
In cycling India dominated with three gold, one silver and one bronze medal and also ruled the turf in kabaddi clinching both the men's and women's gold medals.
The Judokas also did their bit and earned five gold and one bronze, while in taekwondo India bagged 2-2-3.
Lifters were not lagging behind either and earned 3-1-1, while wrestlers had a share of 3-2-0.
Introduced for the first time, wushu earned India four gold, three silver and two bronze medals, while karatekas failed to get gold and settled for three silver and four bronze medals.
In squash, India bowed to Pakistan's dominance again and settled for one silver and two bronze medals.
With India not taking part in cricket, hosts Bangladesh clinched the Twenty20 crown with a thrilling win over Sri Lanka.
In the last edition in Colombo (2006), 216 gold medals were on offer and India had a share of 118-69-47.
India will be hosting the next edition of the South Asian Games in 2012 with venues and dates yet to be decided.
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