Grapplers bring Haryana on top in medal tally in Khelo India Games

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, June 6

Haryana embarked on a gold collection spree, especially in wrestling, to spring past Maharashtra in the medal tally in the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, here today.

Day’s takeaway

• A programme was organised by the Haryana Government, National Centre for Sports Science and Research (SCSSR), New Delhi, on the contribution of new technology in improving the performance of the players.
• Jharkhand’s Eitu Mandal, daughter of a tractor driver, had entered the record books even before making her first raid in the KIYG. At 13, she becomes the youngest entrant in this edition of the Games.

From Manipur to entire India!

• Never heard before, Manipur’s traditional martial arts sport Thang-Ta is hogging the limelight in the KIYG. The sport, which has now travelled to even places such as New Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir, has attracted many admirers from across the nation. Aijaz Bhatt, an official with J&K team, said: “India should promote its traditional sport. The sport is spanning throughout the country and we need assistance to promote it.”
• “Thang-Ta is being played in the National Capital for the past five years now. It takes years of struggle to train in this martial arts event. We organise various events to motivate kids to join the game”, said Anil Kumar, Delhi’s coach.

Haryana grapplers added four more gold to fatten their medal count to an impressive 16 gold, eight silver and 16 bronze medals. This included a couple of gold in weightlifting and one each in shooting, yoga, cycling and gatka.

Defending champions Maharashtra, which had taken the lead on Day 1, were left gasping in the second place with 13 gold, six silver and seven bronze. Manipur, which collected six gold in thang-ta over two days, were third after picking an additional gold in cycling.

Haryana wrestlers have expectedly been in devastating form on home turf. They had bagged all five gold on the opening day of the competition and seemed set for another clean sweep today, especially with two of the five final bouts being all-Haryana affairs.

Suraj defeated Maharashtra’s Vishwajit More by technical superiority. Ravinder too came up against a tough opponent in Maharashtra’s Ajay Kapade in the freestyle 60kg final. He kept his cool under pressure for 11-8 victory.

J&K’s first gold

Jammu and Kashmir created a stir by winning their first gold in the traditional martial arts discipline. Sumit Bhagat got the better of Madhya Pradesh’s Ashish in the Phunaba Anishuba 60kg category. Ashish Yadav of Madhya Pradesh and M Santa Singha of Assam claimed a joint bronze medal. In the Phunaba Anishuba 56kg, Mutum Singh, Yaikhomba and Papai Sarkar claimed top three positions, respectively. In the girls’ Phunaba Anishuba 56kg category, Radhika, Kolom Devi and Kenija Singha claimed top three positions, respectively, and in the Phunaba Anishuba 52kg event, Konjengbam Chanu, Sairah Zahoor and Preeti claimed the first three podium positions, respectively.

A shortlived joy

Tamil Nadu weightlifter T Madhavan won gold medal in the boys’ 61-kg category. He claimed the top podium position by lifting 116kg and his achievement was termed as the new Asian Championship record. However, the annulment of lodging an Asian Championship record was rectified due to technical reasons (regarding age qualification at the time of qualifying for the KIYG), and Madhavan settled only with the gold medal. Shankar Lapung of Arunachal Pradesh claimed silver medal and Golom Tinku claimed bronze. In the 67kg, Bengia Tani, S Logeswaran and Silvan Beihrothatlo claimed top three positions, respectively. In the girls’ 55kg category, Usha, Boni Mangkhya and Sakshi Ranmale claimed top three positions, respectively, and in the 59-kg event, Bhawna logged a new national Record, followed by Sonam Singh at second position and Balo Yalam at third. Bengai Tani opened Arunachal Pradesh’s gold medal account with a total lift of 264 kg in the boys’ 67-kg weight category.

Tasnim, Unnati in badminton final

Top seed Gujarat’s Tasnim Mir stunned tournament favourite Haryana’s Devika Sihag (21-11, 21-18) to march into the girls’ badminton final. She will be facing Haryana’s Unnati Hooda, who defeated Sakshi Phogat (21-17, 21-15), in the title clash. In the boys’ semi-finals, Darshan Pujari faced a tough resistance from Manav Choudhary before logging (21-17, 13-21, 23-21) victory. Rithviksanjeevi S also marched into the final by defeating Saneeth DS (21-15, 21-13). “The finals and matches to decide third position of both boys’ and girls’ categories will be held on Tuesday,” said Surinder Mahajan, Competition Director.

Wrestling: Boys

60kg: 1st Ravinder, 2nd Ajay, 3rd Nikhil Yadav and Amit Kumar

71kg: 1st Narender, 2nd Amit, 3rd Sandip and Sahil (Haryana)

55kg: 1st Suraj, 2nd Vishvajit More, 3rd Anjit Munda and Deepak

65kg: 1st Yashvir Malik, 2nd Nishant, 3rd Victor Singh and Hariom Puri (Madhya Pradesh)

Girls

61kg: 1st Savita, 2nd Shikha, 3rd Nitika and Rekhajat

Yogasana: Boys

Artistic single: 1st Jay Kalekar, 2nd Prakash Sahu, 3rd Rupesh Sange

Artistic group: 1st Haryana, 2nd Maharashtra, 3rd West Bengal

Girls

Artistic individual: 1st Pranjal Vhanna, 2nd Niral Wadekar, 3rd Farzeen Zakati

Artistic group: 1st Maharashtra, 2nd Jharkhand, 3rd Tamil Nadu

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