Haryana pips Punjab on sporting field again

New Delhi, October 13

With the 36th National Games in Gujarat concluding yesterday, a look at the final medals tally clearly shows the growing gulf between the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

Haryana, which has been a traditional powerhouse in Olympics sports disciplines, finished third with a total haul of 116 medals, which included 38 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze. This was Haryana’s second successive third place finish at the Games.

Punjab, on the other hand, slipped to 10th in the table after its athletes won 19 gold, 32 silver and 25 bronze to finish with a total of 76 medals. Punjab’s shooters saved the day for the state by winning six gold medals.

At the previous edition, held in Kerala in 2015, Punjab had finished sixth with 27 gold, 34 silver and 32 bronze medals. The fact that many of Punjab’s athletes, such as Asian Games gold medallist shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, appeared for the Services team proved to be one of the reasons for the fallen numbers. Toor won the gold medal at the Games.

Punjab Olympic Association secretary general KS Sidhu said that the results were on expected lines. “We failed to qualify for the men’s hockey and kabaddi events. A lot of our players have switched over to the Services team,” Sidhu said.

“We lost a generation of athletes because of the seven-year delay in holding the Games. Besides, we also lost a few of our athletes such as discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur due to doping violations. We gave a lot of money to our Olympics medallists. The time has come for the stakeholders to spend money on the grassroots level,” he added.

Haryana maintained its supremacy in both boxing and wrestling. Haryana won 12 of the available 18 gold medals in wrestling. In boxing, the state had to be content with only four gold medals. Notably, many of the medals were lost to Haryana’s boxers appearing for the Services team. However, the state fared poorly in athletics, winning only two gold medals. Haryana was edged out by Maharashtra for the Best State Trophy. Maharashtra won 39 gold medals, one more than Haryana.

The Haryana delegation’s chef de mission, Bikramjeet Singh, said that a lot has to be done in athletics and water sports, like rowing.

“Overall, we are satisfied with the results. The only thing is that the organisers did not feel the need to award trophies to the teams placed second and third. Also, Maharashtra finished second because they won a lot in yogasana and mallakhamb. We need to work harder in these sports,” Bikramjeet said. “We also feel that our teams need to work harder in athletics and in sports like rowing. We are building infrastructure and we need high performance coaches as well,” he added.