Pokhara (Nepal): India opened its medal account in the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) with one gold, two silver and a bronze in the triathlon event on the opening day of competitions here on Monday.

Adarsha M N Sinimol gave India the first gold by winning the men's individual triathlon event while compatriot Bishworjit Srikhom took the silver in a 1-2 finish for the country.

Thoudam Sorojini Devi and Mohan Pragnya added a silver and a bronze in the women's individual event.

The individual triathlon event consists of continuous three legs of 750m swim, 20km bike race and a 5km run. The first athlete to complete the course is declared the winner.

Sinimol clocked 01:02.51 secs to win the gold in men's event while Bishworjit was second with a time of 01:02:59. Basanta Tharu of Nepal took the bronze in 01:03:06.

In the women's individual event, Sorojini clocked 01:14:00 to finish second behind Sony Gurung of Nepal who took the gold in 01:13:45. Another Indian, Pragnya clocked 01:14:57 to win the bronze.

India is being represented by 487 athletes in more than 15 disciplines.

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Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.

RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.

In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.

In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.

RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.

In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.

Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.

Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.

RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.

Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.

Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.