Haryana girls, Punjab boys win hockey gold

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Panchkula, June 10

A gold-winning performance by Haryana eves stole the show at Tau Devi Lal Stadium here this evening. During the hockey final of the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), the hosts defeated Odisha (4-1) to claim an important gold medal.

For Haryana, skipper Sonam scored a brace (4th minute and 49th minute), followed by a goal each by Kanika Siwach (18th minute) and Gurmail Kaur (56th minute). The lone goal for Odisha was scored by Sunelita Toppo in the 49th minute. Earlier, Jharkhand made up for their heart-breaking loss, beating Uttar Pradesh 4-1 to take home the bronze medal.

UT judoka wins silver

City-based judoka Himanshu topped in his pool by defeating Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi in the league stage. In the knock-out final, he settled with silver medal with a narrow margin. In the boxing, Asish Hooda (71kg) defeated Rajasthan (5-0). In another bout, Ruchita Dudy won in the 70kg category by defeating Uttar Pradesh (5-0). Earlier, the Chandigarh basketball team defeated Rajasthan (79-75). Maharashtra, though, continued to breathe down their necks, adding gold in mallakhamb and judo to take their tally to 34. While the mallakhamb boys pipped Madhya Pradesh in the final, judoka Mithila Bhosale defeated Gujarat’s Archana Naghera in the girls’ 40kg category. In swimming events, Karnataka’s Ridhma Kumar set a new mark even as her teammates ruled the pool with five gold medals on the third day of the swimming competition, helping the state leapfrog Manipur to the third spot in the overall standings. Karnataka’s Aneesh Gowda went on to take his fourth gold medal of the meet, winning the 400m freestyle.

Ladakh’s lone woman cyclist brings laurels

Leakzes Angmo, the lone woman cyclist from Ladakh, won the first medal for her state. She won the silver medal. Back home, in a village called Nurla Yokmappa Stalam, she is already a celebrity. A day before her 20-km individual road time trial, Leakzes was downcast after observing her opponent’s equipment. “I froze when I saw the equipment of my co-competitors. My cycle seemed outdated in front of theirs. Most of them had carbon discs on their wheels,” said Leakzes. Just before the race, she somehow managed to borrow a set of wheels from another cyclist and sped away to glory.

“Each of these carbon discs costs Rs 1 lakh. I can’t afford them. Every international cyclist now uses them. It allows them to conserve a lot of critical energy,” she added after clinching the silver behind Karnataka’s Chaitra Borji. “My parents (father Ishey Dawa and mother Rigzin Yangdol) encouraged me to participate in it. A year later, I was selected to join the SAI Academy in New Delhi,” said Leakzes. She cornered glory in the National School Games in 2018-19 and 2019-20, winning gold medals in Time Trial and Team Sprint. She took silver in the 2020 Khelo India Games in Guwahati, too.

Indian hockey team will peak in 2028 Olympics: David John

Former India High Performance Director David John, who was closely monitoring the Odisha women’s team, believes that the Indian hockey team will peak in the 2028 Olympics, giving itself its best shot in several years at a gold medal. “In the 2024 and 2028 Games, most in the squad will be our current junior World Cup players. They would have played close to 300 internationals together by then and would be about 30 years each,” he pointed out on the sidelines of a KIYG match, suggesting that the team would have the right experience to absorb any kind of pressure. The High-Performance Director, who had been with Team India for several years before resigning, was back in the country as Odisha’s Director of Hockey. He is excited with his assignment, especially as he has the complete support of the sport-loving Chief Minister of the state, Naveen Patnaik. “It is a challenging role. But if Odisha becomes strong, Indian hockey becomes strong, both in men and women,” he explained, confirming that his goal and brief was to make his team Number 1 in the country.

UP fail to make use of penalty corners

Punjab rode on Bharath Thakur’s brace to upset favourites Uttar Pradesh (3-1) in a thrilling boys hockey final. Bharath Thakur (4th & 47th) and Rajinder Singh, in the team’s fifth penalty corner, quelled the national champions. Impressive UP earned 10 penalty corners, but could convert only one in the 11th minute, through drag-flicker captain Sharda Nand Tiwari, which was good enough to only restore parity. Odisha’s boys bagged the bronze medal by hammering Jharkhand (8-0).

Results

Cycling

Girls individual time trial 20km: Chaitra Borji (32:51.84); Leakzes Angmo (33:52.52s), Raveena Bishnoi (33:57.27s)

Boys individual time trial 30km: 1st Mukesh Kaswan (38:38.63s), Adil Altaf (39:22.69s); 3rd Parma Ram (39:48.32s)

Judo Boys

50kg: Anurag Sagar (Delhi) bt Prakash Bhabhor (Gujarat)

55kg: Anil (Haryana) bt Himanshu H (Chandigarh)

60kg: Anurag Majgul (Delhi) bt Siddharth Rawat (Uttarakhand)

Girls

40kg: Mithila Bhosale (Maharashtra) bt Archana Naghera (Gujarat)

44kg: Jaanvi Yadav (Delhi) bt Simran S (Haryana)

Mallakhambh Boys

1st Maharashtra; 2nd Madhya Pradesh; 3rd Chhattisgarh

Football Girls

Semi-final: Jharkhand bt Gujarat 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt Haryana 3-2

Tennis Boys

Rushil Khosla bt Daksh Prasad 6-2, 6-2, Dhruv Hirpara bt Parv Nage 6-3, 6-4

Girls

Suhitha Maruri bt Shruti Ahlawat 2-6, 6-1, 7-6, Akanksha Nitture bt Vaishnavi Adkar 6-2, 6-4