National games: Fencer Bhavani defends title

Panaji, October 26

Olympian fencer CA Bhavani Devi, representing Tamil Nadu, defended her National Games gold medal in the women’s sabre individual event after beating S Sowmiya of Kerala 15-5 in the final here today. Shiksha Ballouria of Himachal Pradesh and Jagmeet Kaur of Punjab won the bronze medals.

Babu Gaonkar gave Goa their first gold medal of the Games after winning the men’s laser run event in modern pentathlon at Ponda. Ajay and Ravi of Haryana won the silver and bronze, respectively. Later in the day, Babu teamed up with Seeta Gosavi to win the silver in the laser run mixed relay event, in which Haryana’s Anju and Ravi won gold.

In the women’s laser run, Ujjala of Haryana clinched the gold ahead of Yoginee Umakant Salunke of Maharashtra and Neha Yadav of Madhya Pradesh.

At the Campal Sports Village, Popy Hazarika of Assam clinched gold in the women’s weightlifting 59kg category with a total lift of 191kg. Davinder Kaur of Punjab won silver with a total lift of 182kg while M Deepanayomi of Andhra Pradesh lifted 180kg to take the bronze. In the men’s 67kg category, Mizoram’s Lalhunthara lifted a total of 281kg to clinch the gold, edging out Subhash Lahre (280kg) of Services. Arunachal Pradesh’s Bengia Tani won bronze with a lift of 277kg.